Fortune's Fool
by Mirazhe1
Summary: Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. [Finished]
1. Greatness

Saa, saa. Um.. A story (WITH CHAPTERS!) that Ive been working on for many months now. Well.. Actually Im starting chapter 7 soon now, but Im so mean, Im going to make you guys wait until Im totally done... Well except for chapter 1. Im so impatient I want to claim my spot for the future awesomeness that Fortune's Fool will hold. Chapter 2 wont come until I finish the story.. or chapter 7... or if I can't resist the reviews.

...Which ever comes first.

Anyway, Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Ah! And uber awesome thanks to Impersonating-an-entity, my beta. Never could have done it without The Keeper. Thank you thank you! And you people out there to dumb to figure it out, this might help you--

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

And without further a do...

* * *

_ **Fortune's Fool**_

** Chapter 1- Greatness**

****By Mirazhe1 

Naruto moaned quietly, carefully, so as not to give away that he was yet alive and (somewhat) well to anyone who might still be close. Rubbing his head gingerly, he slowly propped himself up against a conveniently placed tree in the silent forest. He groaned quietly again.

Why were the villagers so... so... His six-year-old brain failed to conjure an adjective potent enough to describe the villagers' hatred. But nevertheless, why? Why kidnap him on his way home from ramen and take him to the empty forest? Why beat the poor boy bruised and bloody, those cold eyes ever watching, within inches of his pathetically lonely life? Then leave him in the dark of the misty forest, telling him not to dare come back to the village. Tears leaked over Naruto's faux whiskered cheeks. Why, why, why? Perhaps... Perhaps it would be better to just do as the villagers said: die in agony like the demon they said he was, and do everyone, especially the old man, a favor. Old Man Hokage, who was always trying to protect him from the hatred of the villagers, the cold eyes, and the snide comments, but too busy to do so every waking moment. But if Naruto disappeared, never existed, he would be out of Old Man Hokage's hair... Or what was left of it. Perhaps...

**'Thou hast not lived, why shouldst thou perish so?'**

Naruto started quickly, his eyes darting about for the deep yet comforting voice, finding nothing.

"Wha..." The six-year-old murmured as he pushed away from the tree to climb to his feet.

**'I hight thee Kyuubi no Kitsune, kittling. Thou hast fallen into the abysmal pit of despair; hast thou not? Thou shall listen not to the belittlement of thine fellow citizens.'**

Naruto blinked in confusion of these words, hardly making out many of them in the first place.

"Wh-who's there!" Naruto called into the dark nervously. Out of habit, the boy began his usual ,"Y-you should know, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of Konoha, s-so-"

**'Hark!'** The voice interrupted loudly. **'None but mine own ears know these words so well. Mine poor, beautiful ears, hast listened to these words many times over, since thou had the wondrous fancy to become this Hokage of Idiots. Fortune's fool, I must be!' ** The musical voice paused, then began again, but this time teasingly, **'Thou must have the intelligence of a thousand fools. Again, I hight thee Kyuubi no Kitsune.'**

"K-k-kyuubi!" Naruto sputtered, his eyes darting round franticly as his young mind realized 'I hight thee...' was the equivalent of 'My name is...' But the Kyuubi was killed, by... by... That one gu- Yondaime! How could he be here? And were the hell was he, wasn't he supposed to be, like, a billion feet tall!

To the blonde's surprise, deep laughter filled his mind. ** 'Thine imagination flies over the clouds above. Fortunately for me and mine, I was killed not, but sealed into thine own stomach, for thou is a vessel. Thine Yondaime Hokage hadst not the strength to defeat me, so sealed mine mind and power in thee.' **Kyuubi chuckled.** 'If mine hight hadst been "a billion feet", I had been the sky itself, foolish kittling. No, the King of Frogs defeats me in mass easily.'**

"You can hear me thinking... Then..."

**'Yes, kittling, I reside within thee. And for appearance of sanity, if only appearance's sake **(Kyuubi chuckled teasingly at this)**, thou shouldst speak to me only within thine own mind.'**

Naruto plopped back down to the ground, stunned at this news. The greatest of all demons was sealed inside him, talked like a weirdo (at this Kyuubi protested animatedly), and apparently wasn't the bloodthirsty evil thing everyone took him for.

'So... All of this time... Everyone called me a demon and a monster and looked at me mean... Because of you?' The poor boy said carefully.

**'And my deepest apologies for it, kittling. Thou hast lived through many evils, because of me, and I shall make it up to thee.'**

'Make it up to...'

**'Thou harps continuously of thine fancy to become acknowledged. I shall guide thee to that goal, and beyond. As I was King of the Demons, thou shall be King of the Shinobi, stronger than any and all. I shall also have a strong vessel in mind and body, thus I am fortunate and content. As long as thou voweth to create a new name for fox demons, I shall aid thee. I fear I have created a rather nasty reputation for us foxes.'** Naruto could just imagine the smile on Kyuubi's face as his own grew to monstrous proportions.

'So you'll teach me a bunch of jutsu and I'll be all strong!' The blonde was nearly dancing with excitement and Kyuubi merely chuckled at the boy's antics.

**'Thou hast The All Powerful Kyuubi no Kitsune at thine disposal and all thou can thinketh of are Jutsu? What a piece of work is man!' **Kyuubi chuckled once again.** 'Think, Kittling, for any powerful being must have a clear mind to use its power with. Before thou can start any kind of training, thou must think everything through.'**

'Well give me my robe and put on my crown!' He paused. 'How do I know you're not trying to trick me?'

**'Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' ** The fox said wisely. Naruto pondered for a moment and slowly agreed.

'So... That means I have to go back to my apartment to get supplies?' queried Naruto. Kyuubi merely made a happy affirmation, as the blonde silently wondered why he wouldn't need rest first. Last he had been aware, he had been seriously injured from gashes and bruises. Jumping back to reality for a moment, Naruto stretched, happy to find his wounds gone and not the least bit sore from it. Kyuubi no Kitsune's power already at work, he guessed.

Near skipping in excitement, Naruto made his way to Konoha's gates in earnest. A mere half-hour ago, he had been drowning in despair to the point of death from the villager's treatment and lack of love. No one, not his newly appointed Academy Teacher Iruka-sensei, not his care taker, not the villagers, and hardly even Old Man Hokage even gave him a second glance, and when they did, it was hardly a happy experience. And yet, in all of the darkness, a light shined through, a beacon of hope, for someone had cared enough of his well being. How odd it was though, that this light had been within him from the beginning. And how odd that his light wasn't even human, but a demon, supposed to be evil and condemning, while the humans around him hated him like a demon would hate a human. Rather ironic... Kyuubi merely chuckled quietly at his six-year-old vessel's musing, wondering how such an obnoxious child could be so insightful and wise.

Lost in thought, Naruto nearly missed the fact that he was arriving at the gates, but he did notice the guards visibly stiffen as he came into view. He recognized a familiar high ponytail and dark scar across the nose of one of the group, and his shoulders sunk a little. Approaching, the guards quickly moved into his path, though Iruka a little more hesitantly. As the vessel tried to move around them, they merely blocked his way once more.

"Hey! Are you guys gonna let me in or what!" The six year old cried loudly at the guards.

"Silence, little Demon-spit! You will treat your betters with respect!" One guard retorted, back-handing Naruto. The boy stumbled to keep balance, but fell in the end.

**'Patience, kittling. Thou shall not rush to battle so quickly.'** Kyuubi said calmly, fighting to calm the raging boy.** 'Shouldst thou throw thine self to this chuunin and merely be beaten into embarrassment for the attempt?'**

'No...' The boy grudgingly replied. 'But what do we do now; I can't get to my apartment for supplies!'

**'Hnmmm... Thou might think 'Oh villain, villain, smiling, damned villain', but this may work to our advantage, kittling. Merely turn and walk back into the forest. There we shall commence survival training.' **Naruto could practically see Kyuubi's grin.

Though the vessel was not one to make an abrupt exit, kicking a large amount of dirt and adding an obscene gesture was enough for him. Little did the guards and Iruka know, it was the last they would see of the "Demon-spit" for a long while...

* * *

Naruto sighed as he stalked through the bright, yet misty forest. Two... Three... And a half months had passed since Kyuubi lightened the boy's life with glee, and the fox was quite... Interesting (hearing this, the praise happy demon practically purred). Much had happened over those three and a half months, much to the pleasure of the vessel, from learning to survive in the forest (though, he had a lot of help) to learning to control chakra for simple jutsu such as Henge (which came in handy for the afore mentioned survival). He wasn't even sure how far he had strayed from Konoha, but from what he remembered, wherever he was now, was much colder and wetter than Konoha ever was. Unfortunately, his clothes had quickly become worn and torn and, definitely not wanting to run around in the nude in the cold weather, had put his knowledge to the test to catch rabbits and other small game (and even a bear once, when he had gotten lucky) for clothing and such.

Speaking of rabbits, Naruto silently slunk forward, his target happily munching away at some new spring buds. Unfortunately, the wind shifted unexpectedly and his downwind advantage was lost. He was good, but not great.

With a twitch of its nose, the rabbit bolted forward with a kick-

-right into the awaiting jaws of a red fox. Once again Naruto sighed, but this time at the irony. Oh well, he'd live on the rest of his rations for a little while longer... Again. As he began to turn, leaving the young vixen to its meal, he paused at the sound of a light yip. As the fox began to talk, the vessel could only pick out a few words, so he grudgingly gathered a small amount of Kyuubi's chakra to his ears. The more he gathered it to understand other foxes, the less he had to use it, but was still rather annoying to do.

_"Thou hast cornered mine food for me, saving the trouble of catching it. As thanks, surely thou would like to share mine den for the night?"_

At this, Naruto's eyes shot open to the size of saucers. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! I-I'm t-too young for that! Pervert!" To his surprise, the vixen's jaw dropped with a hissing laughter.

_"Thou must have the intelligence of a thousand fools! Mine mate would happily maim if he found me with another fox... Even one as handsome as you,"_ The vixen said with a purr and a flick of her fluffy tail. The six year old blinked and rubbed the back of his head; regardless of what the fox said he was in desperate need of a haircut. It was starting to become as wild as the famous Yondaime's porcupine head._ "No, I merely offer thee a warm dwelling and bed for the night."_

Naruto gave an embarrassed smile. "...Ok, Sure, sounds good." With a foxy smile, and a flick of her tail, the vixen bounded off with the rabbit in her mouth. Naruto, not wanting to be left behind, followed quickly. Fortunately, when he fell behind due to thick underbrush or tripped over a root, the fox would slow to a stop and look back, waiting for the clumsy boy to catch up. Finally, they made it to a small cave which the vixen darted into. Naruto followed a little more cautiously.

Fortunately for the foxes, it was a rather roomy den, but Naruto, even though he was a rather small six-year-old, had to duck in. Inside, the vixen dropped the now rather dirty rabbit and yipped a few times. It was quickly replied by a flurry of yelps and growls, unintelligible even to Naruto's chakra enhanced ears. Then, bounding into what little light there was in the den, came five little fox cubs, the sixth lagging behind slightly, but just has happy to see its mother.

**'Peer upon my beautiful cousins. They must be strength incarnate.' **Kyuubi said proudly, mentally puffing out his chest. Naruto smiled; they looked pretty cute and harmless to him.

_"These are mine kittlings; they are young and speechless yet, so search not for a decent conversation." _The vixen explained, gazing lovingly at her children. The vessel grinned at this and held out his hand to the group of brawling fox kits. However, their fight fell to a halt when they noticed the strange (and, from their view, huge) creature. Then, the boldest snorted, puffed out its chest and strode forward defiantly, nose held high to sniff the strange beast. It then turned up its nose with a sniff and closed its eyes, only to quickly crouch, and pounce playfully at Naruto's chest. The rest followed quickly (except for one), causing him to tumble backward. The vixen skillfully dodged out of his flight path.

_"Oh, what a work are they!" _Cried the vixen in dismay and Naruto merely laughed through the happy tongues licking his face. As he was attacked by these slobbery welcomes, something caught the corner of his eye. There, off to the side, was the sixth fox kit, sitting patiently even with its scrawny build. Considering the size of the other kits, it was most definitely the runt of the litter. Kyuubi's chakra flared of its own accord and was gone as quickly as it came, unnoticed by all but Naruto and the kit. The fox kit nodded knowingly and trotted off to join its siblings in their feast of rabbit.

Naruto pondered on this the rest of the night, as the foxes slept, until exhaustion took him.

* * *

As Naruto woke up, he found the vixen and the cubs in distress. The vixen paced around something, the cubs following closely behind, licking her muzzle in hopes of reassurance but finding none. The yips and barks proceeded in such speed that Naruto could barely make anything out before he gathered some of Kyuubi's chakra to his ears once more.

_"Oh woe me, woe me, mine poor kittling. Runt he may be, but he is dying, Inari, dying!"_ cried the vixen in despair as she paced around the sixth fox kit, who lay limply on the ground. Immediately, Naruto tried to calm her as much as he could, but she heard none of his comforts. As much as he wanted to help the fox kit, he was just beginning training and only knew the fewest jutsu, let alone healing ones.

Suddenly, for the second time in under a few hours, Kyuubi's chakra flared without Naruto's control and shot to the fox kit, giving it strength. It shuddered for a moment, and managed to clamber to all fours and bow its head to the vessel. The vixen and remaining fox kits finally stilled, looking stunned.

_"O King of the Fox and Demons, Messenger of Inari, and Wise One, I hight thee Tenko, and I consent," _said the tiny fox kit.

**'So wise, so young, they say do never live long.'** Replied Kyuubi sadly, unheard by anyone save Naruto. Before the vessel could question the fox's motives, he interrupted with: **'Hark quickly, kittling, I long for a body of mine own once again, to live in and to train thee with ease; however, I need consent from thee, for thou hast the choosing word. Thou couldst cancel this at any point, if thou wishes it, and this kittling's body would become feeble, weak, and still as death once again; it merely costs a small amount of mine chakra.' **Kyuubi paused, then continued: **'The majority of mine power would stay with thee, for it takes the littlest amount of will for a being such as myself to move and see through a body. This kittling hast made a consent, for he knows he hast little time to live, mentally and physically, so it is now up to thee.'**

Naruto barely gave it a second thought, seeing no consequences. 'I consent.'

Immediately, Kyuubi's chakra surged from the seal to the fox kittling. It merely closed its eyes, exhaled, and then didn't take a breath for a long while, still standing there. It slowly grew in size, to match its siblings in health and plumpness. Then, it inhaled deeply and reopened its eyes to show the fiery red of Kyuubi's own eyes, where before they were merely hazily-brown.

**"Ah, how wondrous to fill lungs with life-giving air once again! I feel as though I could dance with joy!" **Cried Kyuubi from the fox kit's mouth. Naruto laughed loudly.

"The Great Baka Kitsune is the size of a rat." The vessel gave a foxy smile and poked the fox demon in the side, making him topple over. Naruto snickered.

**"O woe upon woes, I have been reduced to the size of the smallest kit! I, King of Demons! Surely Inari laughs at my misfortune," **Kyuubi cried in dismay. Naruto's snicker grew to a laugh once again. **"Tread lightly, Hokage of Fools, for I am still King of the Fox and can call upon all of mine servants to harass thee for the rest of eternity!"** The vessel was quickly silenced, and Kyuubi gave his own foxy smile of triumph. **"They may laugh now, but mine puny body shall grow and together we shall create a new name for all fox kind."**

Naruto's face slowly lit up into a true foxy smile. "Yah, we shall."

* * *

Woohoo the end of chapter 1. Chapter 2 will come... someday.. Youll just have to keep a look out for it. Naruto will be in for a heck of a surprise when he returns to Konoha and sees all thats happened. Cough cough wink wink nudge nudge. Anyway, another thanks to Impersonating-an-entity and awsome beta-ness.

'azhe out.


	2. Heavens Blazing

Here's chapter 2 :)

And yes, there will be Shakespeare in this fic, but just randomly thrown in by Kyuubi or Naruto, cause they're so wise and awesome ;)

Thank you, Impersonating-an-entity, my beta. Super awesomeness!

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

Without further a do...

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**_Chapter 2 - Heavens Blazing_**

By Mirazhe1

Over the years, Konoha had, in short, gone to the dogs. The would-be bustling-with-life streets were dead and nearly abandoned, save for the handful brave souls who dared venture outside, but even they walked slowly like ones possessed. Wind blew dirt and dust up from the roads to swirl in the lonely air, making the village look a lot like Suna Village. The buildings looked dirty and old, over all unkempt, even a few windows and doors were boarded up. The street booths, usually used by vendors as they called out to passersby, were pitifully empty; the only thing filling them where fruit would usually be was dust. Konoha could only take so much, and it seemed everything and its uncle had happened to it.

It seemed to begin after the celebration of the disappearance of the Kyuubi Vessel. The village's pleasure and morale shot through the roof those first few months, full of celebration. People began working more, harder, proud to provide for their demon-free village. All was well, for the most part. Then, a small famine, steadily growing, broke out over Fire country. Crops failed, as did livestock, and food became more and more scarce and many of the poor starved. But Konoha had made it through famine before, and they could do it again! They would just stick through it. But many, without a certain demon vessel to unleash their anger on, the drunks or more spiteful citizens of the village, began to vandalize important official's houses. People who played important parts in the Kyuubi Attack, many of these vandals were. They egged homes, broke windows, painted graffiti, and some even went as far as to burn down buildings. However, all was well, for Konoha had the Uchiha police.

But, then the infamous Uchiha Massacre took place, depleting one of Konoha's most famous and powerful clans to one official member. With the absence of the police provided by the Uchiha Clan, crime rates skyrocketed and faith in the village began to slip. Clans of Konoha, like the Hyuuga for instance, began to weed out the weak blood, to make their families stronger, better shinobi, so they might create a stronger village. The Hyuuga demoted Main house members by the numbers, and evicted masses of Branch members. The Inuzuka threw out the weakest of their pack and the Akimichi banished the least hearty. This outraged the abandoned, and many rioted against their former clans. The remaining clan members strove to be stronger, to fight from being banished, making them cruel-hearted and less loyal to their village. This happened over the span of many years.

Many of the young shinobi of the new genin generation worked hard for their clan, many becoming hard and disloyal. They fought for themselves and nothing else. Seemingly the leader of this way of life was the Uchiha survivor, Uchiha Sasuke. Over the years after the Massacre, he had tried to run from Konoha many times, sometimes going as far as to injure the people who tried to stop him. It was rumored that the comrade lost in the Wave country mission his group had been assigned had been killed by him, not enemy shinobi as he claimed.

And to add salt to the wound, the Third Hokage, fighting hard to regain Konoha's faith and loyalty to their village, fell deathly ill and for these past few months was on his last legs. But he still fought, and found a replacement to grudgingly hold the title Godaime, a certain Sannin named Tsunade. The new Godaime seemed to have as much hope for Konoha as the citizens did, but fought to rejuvenate the village as much as Sandaime... But mostly just because Sandaime argued with her with all of his remaining energy to quite napping and start helping the village.

Reading this, in the old dusty library of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto had a new respect for Old Man Hokage.

**"Much misfortune has fallen upon this place." **Commented the little fox kit on his shoulder. Contrary to what Kyuubi had said, it appeared he had barely grown at all. Apart from the long Kyuubi-like ears and even longer tail, he looked the same.

"Sure has," replied the vessel with a light, sarcastic "Heh," as he put away the out-dated newspaper. The library was abandoned, even of librarians, but he didn't want to leave a mess. Both he and Kyuubi had returned to the village within that same hour, but had yet to make their way to Hokage Tower. They had both found it wise to catch up on current events first after seeing the desolate village.

**"Cowards they be. Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once," **Kyuubi scoffed. Naruto frowned.

"Maybe," He replied as he exited the library, idely fiddling with the heavily weighted silver bracelets on his wrists. His hands being raised opened the front of his brown traveling cloak to show his weighted roan vest and black shirt, both adorned with a dark orange spiral. Done with his fiddling, Naruto shoved his hands into his off white pants. "But they've been through a lot. People can only take so much." Kyuubi merely "**Harrumph!"-**ed, and jumped from the vessel's shoulder to trot by his side at his feet.

As they made their way to Hokage Tower, they gained a few second or third glances, mostly of fear, even before the passerby noticed the fox; then it usually turned to terror. Strangers in Konoha usually meant trouble, and ones dressed like shinobi in traveling cloaks usually meant missing-nin, which indicated very dangerous trouble. And to top it all off, the appearance of foxes more often than not brought anger, and most recently, fear. This made Kyuubi growl.

Naruto casually glanced around with resigned interest as they walked (or in Kyuubi's case, with his short legs, trotted). He hadn't been to Konoha for years, and though he left on bad terms, he still had the strong loyalty to the village flowing through his veins. No matter what, he would always love his village... Though it was hilarious to see the gate guards recognize him when he originally approached. Now that had been a sight.

The vessel blinked, then gave an embarrassed smile as he spotted his old apartment. It looked as though the windows had been smashed, boarded up, and smashed once again, and graffiti covered every inch, painted many times over. The door had obviously been kicked in... It still lay on the ground.

Still walking, he finally made it to Hokage Tower and, unlike the rest of the town, the inside was bustling with movement and life. Workers scurried around to finish paperwork or obey the Hokage's demands, yelling and shouting their requests, woes, and troubles all the while. Kyuubi once again jumped onto Naruto's shoulder and the vessel began his trek to Godaime's office on the ceiling after a few chakra-enhanced hops on the wall. The workers, in their rush, never even noticed.

As Naruto made it to the door to Godaime's office, and flipped down to the floor, he noticed that unlike when he was young, there was only one shinobi guarding the door. Either the village was lacking in new shinobi, the new Hokage was really strong, or just really stupid. He silently hoped it was the first or the second; Konoha had no hope if their Hokage was a stupid one.

The guard's eyes widened as he saw the vessel flip down from the ceiling. "Who are you; what are you doing here! Another missing-nin!"

**'A fool, he is.' ** Kyuubi said within the confines of Naruto's mind.

"Really now, if I was here to assassinate the Hokage, I wouldn't bother letting you see me, would I?" Naruto said with a foxy smile as he tried to diffuse the situation. Luckily, it worked to at least stun the guard. Picking his chance, the vessel strode forward and banged loudly on the door. "OI, OI! ANYONE IN THERE? GODAIME-SAN! OLD MAN HOKAGE!" He bellowed at the door. The guard, not in the least bit stunned now, looked on in horror and quickly evacuated the hall-

-as the door came crashing in (or out, depending on how you look at it), sending Naruto flying down the hall to land in with a painful sounding thud.

"DUMB-ASS! NO ONE SHOULD WAKE A YOUNG WOMAN FROM HER BEAUTY REST!" shrieked the rather well-endowed blonde woman that had sent the poor vessel flying. She calmed for a moment, straightening from her punching position, to glance at the aforementioned guard who was now peaking around the corner to spot what had happened. "Oi," she said more calmly this time, "Who the hell is he?" She pointed lazily to Naruto, who was now standing to dust off his clothes, seemingly unharmed. He was laughing heartily at Kyuubi, still on his shoulder. The fox looked rather disgruntled, and was muttering a long line of curses in his mind.

"What's going on now?" Asked a rather tired, yet familiar voice from the doorway. Naruto quickly glanced up to Old Man Hokage in surprise. The old man still stood in all of his former glory, but surely looked ten decades older and thinner. He couldn't have much life left in him, sadly. "N-Naruto?" The ex-Hokage asked uncertainly. Naruto flashed a foxy smile.

"In the flesh, old man!" Sandaime merely blinked in wonder, then promptly collapsed.

---

When Sandaime woke up (for he did wake up), he found himself in his bed... At home... With Godaime (her glowing blue chakra healing hands close to his heart) and Naruto of all people sitting next to his bed.

"N-Naruto?" He asked once again, just to make sure. He didn't bother to rise to a sitting position, knowing he didn't have the strength to do so. The vessel rolled his eyes and nodded. "Where have you been?"

Naruto shrugged and smiled. "Up, down, and all around." This made Godaime frown irritably at the lack of respect, but Sandaime merely sighed. It really was the same old Naruto he knew and (somewhat) loved. As the night dragged on, both exchanged questions (from Naruto) and stories (from Sandaime) of what happened in Konoha in more detail than the library had ever given. Naruto eventually learned that the new Godaime's name was Tsunade, who seemed easily irritable and to frown a lot, but obviously loved the ex-Hokage as a teacher. But as the night bore on, Sandaime's illness began to sap away at his energy more and more, however, as a last gift to her teacher, Godaime repetitively granted her chakra to him in larger and larger quantities so he may stay alive a little longer to talk to his long lost friend and son-figure.

More and more they talked, mostly of Sandaime's troubles, but as his time grew closer began to question Naruto more and more, trying his hardest to gain at least a little information about what happened to the boy over the last six years, with little success. Each time he pried slyly, the subject would be changed rather obviously and he would be back to square one.

"What have you been doing all this time? Why did you leave?" He asked, trying a new approach to gain information. Time was growing short and being sly and coy to get information obviously wasn't going to work. Tsunade's blue healing chakra began to recede as she had done all she could. She said nothing about the ex-Hokage's health. Sandaime's probing, fortunately, received more of an answer from Naruto this time around, as the vessel was obviously growing tired of Sandaime's prodding and chose to merely give in.

"Training, mostly, with Ky-Tenko." He answered, quickly fixing his mistake in wording as he absent mindedly scratched Kyuubi's chin. The fox demon purred both aloud and in the mind from atop the vessel's shoulder. "Kinda got tired of all of the villager's abuse. Cold eyes aren't that welcoming." He glanced lazily at Godaime, leaning back in his chair. Kyuubi quickly shifted to his "master's" lap.

As Naruto spoke, Tsunade's eyes widened in realization. "This is the Kyuubi kid?" She asked.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto, thanks," the vessel immediately corrected as Sandaime gave the woman a pointed glare. "Don't worry, Old Man. I already know about the _Baka _Kitsune." Kyuubi mentally growled at this.

"You do? And you don't mind?" Sandaime asked. "How did you find out?"

"I pieced things together as I got older," Naruto answered easily, as he slowly averted his eyes away from Sandaime's own, to focus on the wall behind him. The old man never noticed, but he did shift in his bed weakly at the answer.

"If you knew about Kyuubi... And hate how the villagers treat you... Why did you come back now? You could have easily stayed away from Kohona for a good, long time," questioned Sandaime, obviously curious. "You may have noticed… we lack the ability to send out hunter-nin." Naruto's squinting eyes opened, widening in wonder for a moment, before softening.

"Because I love my village," he answered simply. Tsunade promptly snorted.

"Love this village? Hah!" Sandaime frowned. "Nothing good comes from this village, kid, and never will. Everyone that loves this village died protecting it, baka." Naruto nearly growled.

"Everyone dies eventually, Tsunade-_san_! Better to die protecting it than to die a coward without honor," The vessel spat. He quickly calmed himself and went on, "I was once told by someone very wise that cowards die many times before their deaths, but the valiant never taste of death but once. Would you be such a coward that you're not even loyal to your village? Cowards are the people that board up their homes, let horrible things happen to other people and do nothing. Let the village they grew up in go to the dogs, and let the people starve, and do nothing! If nothing is done, nothing will happen; nothing can come of nothing. Oddly enough, it seems a lot like you have been doing, Old Hag!" Godaime's shoulders sagged slightly in shame.

"I came back to this village 'cause I love it, no matter how much the villagers hate me, no matter how much people don't want me here. I will restore Konoha, even if I have to drag every villager kicking and screaming from their homes." Sandaime, old, weary, and eyes heavily lidded, smiled.

"I'm proud of you, Naruto. You've grown up a lot over the years. I only wish I had been there to see it," Old Man Hokage said softly. Naruto beamed with pride.

**"This is the unkindest cut of all, to see one of such wisdom die in such a way,"** Kyuubi said, finally speaking aloud as he jumped from Naruto's lap to Sandaime's bed to sit beside him, startling both Hokages in the room. Tsunade moved to exterminate the fox demon, but a piercing glare from Naruto stopped her in her tracks. Sandaime merely lay there, amazed to hear Kyuubi's voice once again. **"Hark, wise one. Listen well. When cowards die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. The heavens shall shine with thine passing, wise one, I shall see to it." **Sandaime smiled wearily and gazed over to what could only be called his son-figure.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. Your part's over, Old Man Hokage, so now I'll make my part. I'll continue what you tried to do; for your sake and Konoha's; I'll revive their love and loyalty to the village," Naruto assured.

"I know you can do it, Naruto. Love the village and I'll die content."

And with that, Sandaime Hokage, survivor of the Kyuubi attack, and the attempted savior of Konoha, died.

The heavens blazed brightly that night.

* * *

Aww Sadaime Died. Tear. But even if he died, you have to keep reading cause next time Naruto meets his team and pulls a trick out of his had ;) 

'azhe out.


	3. Inari's Messanger

Hehe here you go. Umm... lets see... ah! If you can tell me where I snatched the fog scene from (youll see once you read it), you get cookies and my undying love (sorta). Oh yeah! Ive had someone ask me if there are to be pairings and the answer is no. I have no experience with romance (fiction or otherwise...), so my attempts at writing romance is gag-a-hippo nastyness. Believe me, Im doing you a favour by NOT having pairings.

Ultra super thanks to Impersonating-an-entity!

Disclaimer: I own nothing... including my soul... Naruto stole it. :) I couldnt be happier

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

Without further a do...

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 3 - Inari's Messanger**

By Mirazhe1 

The Sandaime's funeral was held not many days after his death, and was dreary and dark, as the heavens contrasted the brightness they had shown only nights before. Black clouds shadowed the buildings and already darkly clad attendants, and even Kyuubi's vibrant red-orange fur looked dim and stark in the gloom. Not many people had shown up, but more than Naruto suspected in the first place. He even recognized a few people such as Iruka (though he admitted it grudgingly, his old academy teacher looked almost exactly the same), and managed to recognize Hyuuga Hinata, as much as she had changed, who was sobbing softly next to a blank faced Hyuuga branch member. The vessel turned away quickly, feeling unusually guilty at seeing someone from such a prestigious clan sobbing so adamantly. Luckily, no one had recognized Naruto (unless they were damn good at hiding it), since he had been careful to stand near the very back of the crowd. Because of this, though, and being so short, actually seeing anything was a trial. The funeral was relatively uneventful, until the infamous Uchiha Sasuke made an appearance and spit on the Sandaime's coffin, then made a hasty retreat. Naruto could only just keep himself from killing the arrogant boy right then. The attendants, obviously stunned, finished quickly after that.

Hardly sparing the remaining attendants a glance, Naruto slowly made his way to Hokage Tower, taking the usual route on the ceiling when he got there, and waving to the guard, who nodded at him, and entered Godaime's office. Unlike his first visit, Godaime didn't end up pummeling the vessel, nor was she sleeping, but calling out commands to the many people bustling in and out of her office to organize papers and such; Naruto even saw Tsunade's assistant, Shizune, among them, whom he had met just yesterday.

"And the Library! Konoha's library will be cleaned up and reopened," Tsunade commanded as she was struck with this inspiration, then looked up. As she noticed the vessel and fox enter the room, her determined face turned to an amused one. "Ah, Naruto, come in." At hearing these words, the assistants in the office quickly made their way out, since they knew it meant Godaime was going to have a meeting (though it also meant "If you don't hurry up and leave through the door, I'll help you leave through the window!"). The vessel entered quickly, taking a seat in a chair across from Godaime that was unoccupied with paperwork.

**"How I envy thee, to have underlings listen to thee with such promptness... Unlike most,"** Kyuubi said, lightly whacking Naruto in the head with his tail as he came to the end of his speech. Naruto replied with a lazy punch at the fox on his shoulder, but Kyuubi deftly dodged and landed on the vessel's lap. Tsunade merely grinned as Naruto crossed his arms, with a pouting look on his face.

"Anyway, I'm sure you want me here to put me on a Genin team, right?" The vessel asked wisely after a moment. Tsunade nodded.

"Anyone training under a demon for six years is going to be ­at least over mid-chunnin level, but I can't just grant you that rank without raising suspicions," She confirmed, her eyes sliding down at her paperwork expertly. Naruto saw this and his own eyes narrowed slightly.

"But that's not all is it," the vessel said as he leaned back into the chair. "The Uchiha is known for being rebellious and running from the village, and when he can't run, he leaks info to missing-nin, or so I've heard. It's also rumored he helped murder his late teammate, but no one's really sure. And now, since there's an opening in the team and Kakashi's not doing his job too well, you want me to keep an eye on Uchiha." Godaime blinked.

"Were did you learn all this?"

"The library," Naruto answered with a foxish smile. Kyuubi merely rolled his eyes, but was mentally patting his student on the back, promising him a new jutsu later. Actually, he had helped Naruto piece it together, but had been surprised by how much his vessel had figured out on his own. Apparently, all those years in the woods had made him shrewd even among the humans, strange creatures they were.

"Well... I guess you caught me," admitted Tsunade, "But you're not quite right. I don't want you just to keep an eye on Sasuke. I know he's responsible for the missing-nin attacks, and believe he might be conspiring with Orochimaru, the serpent Sannin. Unfortunately, I have no definite proof, so that's were your job comes in." Godaime smiled slyly as she steepled her fingers beneath her chin. "I want you to find proof of his treason. The villagers are in such desperate times that they're holding onto any hero figure they can, and with Sasuke's survival after the massacre... Well, let's just say, even if I proposed this as Hokage, I would be the one committing treason."

Naruto and Kyuubi snorted in unison.

**"O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!" **

"Yeah, jeez." Tsunade blinked at the vessel, wondering how he even understood the fox in the first place, then dismissed it with a shrug. Naruto blinked, then wondered aloud, "I wonder who the third team member is.."

"Haruno Sakura," Tsunade answered absent-mindedly as she handed Naruto two Konoha headbands.

"Haruno...That's not a ninja clan or well known family..." He answered, taking them and tying one around his forehead below long unruly hair (so unruly it spilled over the headband, looking oddly like Yondaime's hair) and the other around Kyuubi's neck.

"Because her family aren't ninja by trade," Godaime answered lazily. "They consist mostly of scholars and, to tell the truth, while Sakura is incredibly smart," Tsunade looked away and coughed something that sounded insulting under her breath as she said this, "I've heard she's weaker than the freshest academy student."

Naruto, who had been stroking Kyuubi's back at the moment, froze and slowly looked up at Godaime. "So you're telling me... I'm on a team with a lazy ass who can't do his job... An insane egotistical bastard... And a worthless wench who couldn't squish an ant if she tried?" The vessel twitched as Tsunade nodded, then sighed. 'Maaan! Two out of three was OK, but the whole team sucks also! I was hoping there would be at least one competent Ninja!' He complained loudly in his mind.

**'Frailty, thy name is woman!' **The fox replied, equally as loud in his mind.

"When do I meet them…" Naruto grudgingly asked after a moment as Tsunade glanced at the clock.

"Well... Sasuke and Sakura probably got there an hour ago... But Kakashi is probably just arriving, soo... In three minutes." Once again Naruto twitched, then bolted out the door.

"DAMN IT! NO WAY I'M GOING TO BE LATER THAN A LAZY ASS!"

* * *

**'Foolish, kittling, thou could have easily made it even jogging at thine speed in a minute,' **Kyuubi thought to his student as he trotted at his side, a good fifteen minutes after they had left Tsunade's office. Naruto just shrugged, walking slowly as they approached the meeting place.

"Now, where's the fun in that?" Kyuubi just groaned again.

As they approached, Naruto easily picked out Sasuke, as he had seen him in many pictures in the archived newspapers in the library, and not to mention the funeral. He then picked out their sensei, Kakashi, leaning lazily on the bridge railing, reading a rather suspicious-looking book. Last, he spotted the most wonderful color of hair he had ever set eyes upon; the brightest pink, beautifully loud and brilliant. Dear god it was wonderfully bright. As Sakura turned however, his amazement dwindled slightly, as he wondered how such a large forehead could accompany such a wonderfully bright shade of hair.

'But it's… Just so.. Bright! Awesome!' Naruto thought loudly.

**'Caution, kittling, all that glisters is not gold.'** Kyuubi scolded. Then, to prove the foxes point, Sakura's banshee voice filled the air, and all of Naruto's remaining amazement was easily snuffed out.

"IDIOT! IT TOOK YOU EVEN LONGER TO GET HERE THAN KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU'RE SUCH A ... A... A DEAD-LAST!" She shrieked, and Kyuubi was sure his ears were bleeding as he crouched low to the ground, covering his head with his paws. Naruto felt likewise. Their growls went unheard under the banshee's voice.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Naruto said, giving a foxy grin. Sasuke scoffed and Kakashi looked on uncaring. "Old Hag Hokage held Tenko and I back to talk 'bout some junk."

'**Me and Tenko, foolish kittling,'** Kyuubi mentally corrected. The vessel merely rolled his eyes, then noticed an awkward silence in the group.

"Oh! My name's Uzumaki Naruto, and this is Tenko," he said quickly.

"You'll know me as Hatake Kakashi."

"Haruno Sakura."

Sasuke scoffed.

"It's a liability to bring pets on Ninja missions... Especially young, untrained ones," Kakashi drawled out after a moment, looking down at Kyuubi. He, of coarse, remembered the Kyuubi attack and knew Naruto was its vessel, so a fox tagging along with a fox demon didn't sit well with him.

Naruto, hearing this, frowned angrily for a moment, then beamed brightly. "Don't worry, Kakashi-san, Tenko's well-trained to be a Ninja, and he's probably even smarter than all of us combined." Kyuubi, now in the limelight, puffed out his chest and snorted something akin to **"Damn straight!"**,but Team Seven passed it off as hearing things.

"Well then, let's kill two ninja with one kunai. As a team, we need to assess your abilities as a Genin, and if you believe your... 'partner' is so strong, we'll see just how effective he is," Kakashi said slowly, as if talking to an idiot... Which he might have thought Naruto was. "We were assigned a low C-Rank mission, to do as a team and find your weak points, but if... Tenko is as strong as you say, you should be able to finish the mission easily on your own. Well...We'll hang behind in case you need help, of course," The Jounin said with poorly masked cruelty.

Naruto glared at them for a moment. They seriously, undoubtedly believed that he wouldn't be able to do it.

**'Thou art fortune's fool. Thou hast dug thine self into thine own grave, how shalt thee make thine own way out?'** Kyuubi asked silently to the vessel. Naruto, looking thoughtful as he gazed at the cloudy sky, paused for a moment, and then answered.

'It's going to be a fogy night tonight...' He thought, then began to explain his general plan to the fox.

* * *

As Team 7 arrived at the client's house (a rather LARGE house) on the far side of Kohona, the man explained that he had recently inherited a fortune from his Uncle, and after a thief had attempted to steal a potion of this wealth, he had grudgingly decided to get guards to protect it until it could be properly taken care of, especially since it seemed the thief was not discouraged. After hearing this, Kakashi instructed Naruto to protect the items in any way he saw fit, and Sakura and Sasuke to hide themselves carefully, and watch Naruto in case he might need help. With that the Jounin poofed out of sight.

Naruto and Kyuubi guarded the front door lazily. Bored, Naruto wished that damn thief would hurry the hell up to get his ass kicked, as it was getting dark and, as Naruto predicted, foggy. The vessel and fox had already long since detected Sasuke in the mighty oak tree across the yard, and Sakura, not 10 feet away, in the bushes. The surroundings looked mysterious, unearthly, and even morbid, with all of the colors in the trees and grass seemingly being sucked away by the overly clouded sky. The fog floated in the air thickly, swirling around mysteriously as the breeze parted and closed it, even obscuring Sakura's vision of Naruto to a certain degree. And then, Naruto's wish was granted, as the cushioned sound of careful footsteps on grass met his ears. He looked to Kyuubi and the fox nodded, darting into the fog, as Naruto went in the opposite direction, both disappearing.

And just as they disappeared, the thief made his way to the house, treading softly. He seemed to be somewhat experienced as a thief, but did not seem to know anything about ninja, since he did not bother to conceal his chakra or look anywhere but the ground for traps. But as he stalked forward, he whirled back around as he heard the soft padding of footsteps, and saw in the mist the silhouette of a decent-sized fox, red eyes glowing menacingly.

"Who's there?" The thief called quietly, but surely. At first he wondered if he was mistaken, as the silhouette made no sound or movement, but as the fog parted he gained a clear view of the fox. "Stupid fox! Get out of here!"

Once again, the fox said nothing as the fog naturally closed on itself again, obscuring the thief's view of the animal. Then, a breeze caught up, parting the fog once again to reveal the fox gone. The thief snorted arrogantly, and turned back to the house... To see the fox once more.

"G-get out of here!" He cried quietly once more, growing slightly unsure. The fox cocked its head to the side, and its chops raised, mimicking a smile that looked more like a snarl.

**"Worry not,"** It said in a deep voice, **"Hurt thee, I shall not." **

The thief was almost too stunned to answer. A talking fox!

"Hurt me! A fox hurt a human?" He only realized the irony in this after he said it.

**"Not just any fox,"** It said gravely, smile vanishing.

"Ch-Che! W-what are you? Who s-sent you!" The thief was hardly bothering with stealth anymore, too amazed and unnerved by the talking fox.

**"I hight thee Kyuubi. I am messenger of Inari."** After it said this, the fog rolled around the fox once more and it disappeared.

"S-STAY STILL! It's forbidden to mention the Kyuubi!" The thief cried, whirling about wildly. He was just old enough to remember what had happened at the attack (for he _was_ there), and had even lost a few family members to the demon fox, and though he had never met the vessel, had a deeply burrowed fear of the fox.

**"Forbiden?" **Came Kyuubi's voice through the mist. **"And who forbid it?"**

"S-sandaime Hokage." The thief looked around, afraid and terribly confused. He had heard tales of trickster kitsune, but this was outrageous.

**"Peace."** Kyuubi's voice came from the mist, **"Inari hast a message for thee..."**

"Sh-shut up! There is no such thing as Inari!" The thief bellowed, voice cracking as he did. Once again Kyuubi appeared in the fog, head cocked to the side in confusion.

**"Dost thou not believe in me?"** He whispered. **"In Inari?" **With that, the fox darted back into the mist.** "Here I am, all around thee." **

"Stay still, stay still, stay still!" The thief cried desperately, eyes rolling madly. "Stop playing games, trickster!"

**"Games? This is no game! Stealing from Konoha gakure no Sato is no game."** Kyuubi was exposed again, teeth bared in a silent snarl. The thief lunged at Kyuubi now, a small knife drawn, but the fox darted into the mist again-

-to appear immediately behind the thief through the fog. It was impossible to run that fast around him, even for a fox.

**"I am still here!"**

"How!" The thief cried, once again lunging at Kyuubi, only for him to dart into the fog once again. He looked about wildly, catching glimpses of a fox in the corners of his eyes, first at the right, then the left, then behind him. Everywhere.

**"Because Inari is all around thee,"** Kyuubi called, from nowhere and everywhere at once, **"In the mist, in the trees, in thine dreams and worst nightmares." ** The thief whirled, trying to follow the fox's movement. By now he was holding back tears of terror, and had nearly wet his trousers in fear. And there, Kyuubi stilled once more, back in his original spot. The fog began to close on him again, more slowly this time, and just as it nearly covered him, he spoke.

**"Fear me..."**

**"... For I come when thou least expects it,"** He finished, reappearing to the thief's left. The poor man's eyes widened, and the growing pool at his feet proved he had wet himself. Kyuubi fell silent as he disappeared again.

"Ochiro!" Another man ran through the mist, slowly appearing as he came. The thief, Ochiro, looked at him hopelessly, stammering. "What's going on, I heard voices," The new man asked quietly, with enough sense to stay quite. Ochiro continued to stammer incoherently, the various phrases such as "Fox..", "Says he's Inari...", and "Came from everywhere...", made their way out. With a cry, Ochiro darted away, stumbling as he went.

"Bull, there's nothing out there," The new man said quietly to himself. "Idiot'll get his ass whooped in the morning."

**"Thou must not punish him for telling the truth."** The man's eyes shot to his right, spotting Kyuubi as the fog swirled to cover him once again.

"Who are you!"

**"Inari's messenger."**

"Over there," the man muttered to himself, whirling around to were he believed the fox was.

**"No, here,"** Shouted Kyuubi. Growling with frustration, and letting loose a cry, the man plunged into the mist. His short cry of pain was heard a while later.

The rest of the night passed quickly, and as the sun came up and the fog dissipated, Sasuke and Sakura spotted Naruto and Kyuubi sitting upon the unconscious body of the second thief.

Ochiro personally admitted his crimes to the Hokage the next morning, begging to be forgiven.

* * *

In the morning when Kakashi asked Sasuke and Sakura how the mission went, Sakura fell silent. She, along with Ochiro, had been seriously unnerved by the display. Sasuke also felt the same, but for different reasons. He had only able to see the strategy thanks to his Sharingan; creating some kind of bunshin that all looked like Kyuubi (or in Sasuke's mind, Tenko), then transforming himself to look the same, and darting around through the fog cover, unnerving the thief. It was a genius plan, using almost every natural resource around him to disable the enemy in a (unfortunately) non-violent way.

But when asked how Naruto did, the Uchiha scoffed, looked away to the ground, and said the dope had to be rescued when the thief sneaked up on him and out-fought him. Kakashi merely looked down at Sasuke for a moment and answered:

"It's disrespectful for a student to lie straight to their teacher's face," The Jounin said slowly, "Especially when the teacher watched the entire test." Sasuke looked appalled.

Kakashi then turned away, and approached Naruto, who had accepted the blatant lie, silently looking away with unrecognizable look. Kyuubi, however, was snarling and spitting loudly in protest, red eyes blazing. "Congratulations, Naruto, you pass. Welcome to Team 7."

Unbeknownst to his students, though, Kakashi was also slightly unnerved with his new student's display, but, once again, for other reasons. His single eye wandered from Naruto's stomach, to Kyuubi, and back and forth many times the rest of the day.

* * *

Oooohhhh Naruto's all mysteriously evil :) This was a fun chapter to write, but I my poor beta was probably like "Dear god this person's crazy" No no not really. -runs off to hug Keeper- But even if it's mysterious and scary, stick around for next chapter to see Team 7 and Team 8 get paired up for a mission (oooohhh, ahhhh). Foxes and dogs were never the best of friends: HEADS WILL ROLL! 

'azhe out.

(And dont forget about my cookie and undying love offer!)


	4. Wicked Comings

Saa... here we are :). We get to meet Team 8 this chapter, and Ill take a moment to say that Kiba fans will hate me. Lets say Kiba is a lot more... headstrong, this time around. Shino and Hinata are reletively the same though, i think. Ahh we'll see :). A lot of fans are going to hate me throughout this story, so Id better get used to it... -sigh- Lol. I will tell you most characters that seem a little off in the begining, get better later, mostly.

Disclaimer: I own nothing...

Thanks to Impersonating-an-entity for betaing!

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

Without further a do...

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 4-Wicked Comings**

By Mirazhe1

Naruto and Kyuubi sighed in unison, both equally bored. Kyuubi, stretched out on his side on the worn down bridge growled softly at his 'sensei's' absence. Naruto, who was also stretched out, only on his back, joined him in growling soon after as he carefully carved a wooden kunai (with none other than the regular steal kunai). Sasuke, who was on the other side of the rickety bridge, furrowed his eyebrows in mounting anger, glancing slowly at the foxy pair. Sakura, nuzzling ever closer at his side, saw this and quickly joined in in the glaring at Naruto and his partner, not exactly knowing why.

Over the past few weeks, after Naruto's test, Team Seven had been participating in mission after mission, of all difficulties due to the lack of shinobi help in the village. Kakashi-sensei would pop up, with varying degrees of lateness, with an uncaring "Yo", explain their mission, accomplish it, and head home (or to training, in Naruto's case). However, today their sensei must have been setting a record, for it had been long after his latest time and he was still no where to be found.

Naruto quickly lifted himself to a sitting position, having finished his wooden kunai, and chucked it powerfully in Sasuke's direction. With quite a crack, it embedded itself into the rotting bridge railing, looking as solid and durable as ever. Sasuke, who had not moved in the entire ordeal, though was glancing at the wooden weapon with a twitch in his eye, looked to Naruto proudly.

"Dope, can't even hit your target," He said arrogantly. Naruto snorted calmly as Kyuubi, now standing, growled softly. Sakura was stunned for a moment, but then gathered her wits.

"Yeah dead last! You could've hit Sasuke-kun!"

"Who said I was aiming at anything, bastard?" The vessel asked, ignoring Sakura. Sasuke glared.

"Dead last... I don't know why I put up with the likes of you."

"Ch, yeah, yeah, asses are made to bear and so are you," Naruto answered in an annoyed manner with a wave of his hand. As he said this though, he glanced away from Sasuke, down the bridge, to a figure making his way toward them. He walked quickly, with a propose, but void of emotion as the collar of his coat rose to cover half of his face, and a pair of dark shades obscuring the other.

"Team Seven?" The boy asked, receiving either wondrous, annoyed, or calm nods from the team. "Godaime-sama summons you." With that, he turned and without looking back made his way to Hokage tower. Naruto shrugged and followed with a "Wonder what the Old Hag wants.." As Kyuubi hopped onto his shoulder with a thought of warning. Sasuke followed only a moment after, grudgingly, and Sakura followed Sasuke.

* * *

As they arrived at Tsunade's office, the silent boy still leading, boisterous yelling could be heard from within. As the office door opened, the yelling only became more loud and arrogant, hurting poor Naruto and Kyuubi's ears. Inside, a rather feral looking boy was objecting to some nonsense, and a small fearful looking girl and disgruntled dog stood in the corner. Tsunade, chin placed haphazardly in the palm of her hand as she leaned on it, looked rather bored and used to this.

"I WILL NOT LOWER MYSELF TO BE ON A MISSION WITH SUCH -SUCH..."

"Incompetence," Tsunade offered lazily, not really listening to the feral boy's rant.

"-INCOMPETENCE! TO DO A MISSION WITH ANOTHER TEAM IS LIKE SAYING MY TEAM IS WORTHLESS! I -"

"OI, ASSHOLE!" Naruto shouted, his own voice easily overpowering the others as it's owner stood stunned. "Your voice is annoying when you talk all arrogant like that. Shut the hell up." The dog-nin blinked in wonder. "Hey Old Hag, whats going on?" Naruto asked more calmly now.

"Im assigning Teams Seven and Eight a mission, but it seems Kiba here objects," Tsunade answered, obviously relieved for it to be quite again.

"Of coarse I fucking object. Like hell I'd want to be paired with such a weakling team," The boy, Kiba, said with a snort. Sasuke frowned.

"Che. All I see on your team is a weakling, a mute, and a mutt," Sasuke said with a snort. Then directing his speech to Tsunade, "Why can't Team Seven do it alone, without them."

Tsunade sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose for the on coming headache. "Because," She said forcefully, "This is a low B-Rank mission, so no Rookie Genin Team," She glared meaningfully at the two boys, "Could take this mission alone without their Jounin instructors." At the confused look at the occupants in the room (save, it seemed, Naruto and Kyuubi), she sighed. "Yes, your Jounin instructors won't accompany you; Their off on their own missions at the moment." Their reactions were predictable, as Sasuke smirked evilly, Kiba doing the same, but more arrogant than evil. Sakura looked just as, if not more in her own way, evil and anxious. The girl, Hinata, and the dog, Akamaru looked slightly fearful for different reasons, and Naruto and Kyuubi looked excited to be traveling again, if just for a short while. Scooting a folder in Kiba's general direction, she said, "This is the mission outline and information. Kiba is assigned team Leader. Now get out of my office."

They all left quite hastily at the tone of her voice.

* * *

For the forty-second (not that he was counting) time that day, Naruto sighed. He was, once again, carving another wooden Kunai to add to his collection, though, since he had finished it hours ago, was now adding little dancing fox carvings into the side. He glanced about the forest they trekked through, for lack of anything better to do and saw Sakura trying to strike a conversation about some plan to the silent Sasuke behind him. Akamaru followed behind the near marching-with-arrogance Kiba (who had yet to explain their mission to in detail to them), sighing his little doggy sigh just as much, if not more, than Naruto. Hinata was trailing close behind Kiba, eyes carefully plastered to the ground ahead, and Shino walked behind, staring intently at Kiba's behind for all Naruto knew. The vessel sighed again.

**'End this annoying noise, it tries my ears.'** Kyuubi said irritably from below Naruto, trotting beside him. Naruto rolled his eyes, and mocked the fox aloud quietly, then flipped him off. Hinata, the only one to hear the mocking (or perhaps the only one that even cared), blinked away from staring at the ground and looked behind her to the vessel. As Naruto vision fixed on her from the sudden movement, the shy girl started and quickly fixated her sight on the ground again, blushing red. With a shrug, Naruto quickened his pace to walk beside Hinata. Kyuubi, growling at being left behind, rolled his little red eyes and moved forward to walk beside Akamaru.

"Hey, whats so interesting on the ground?" Naruto asked the Hyuuga suddenly, staring at the ground along with her. Hinata started once again, and looked up, carefully adverting her eyes from Naruto.

"Oh... n-nothing, s-sorry," She said quietly, poking her fingers together.

"What are you apologizing for? There's nothing to say sorry about," Naruto replied, squinting his eyes shut and hooking his fingers behind his head.

"Sorry, I g-guess your right," She said with a small smile, then a blush. Naruto said nothing, and they walked in a easy silence for a short while.

"So you're a Hyuuga? That's pretty neat, coming from such a powerful clan," The vessel said, striking at a conversation once again. Hinata blinked at the speech out of the blue, and then nodded uneasily.

"I.. I guess so," She answered unsurely. Naruto grinned a foxy grin.

"So you know that Gentle Fist fighting style? You must be real good at it, being in the main family."

"Not.. Really," Hinata replied, idley wondering how he knew about the Hyuuga fighting style and how she was in the main family. "Im no good compared to a lot of the others." The vessel rose an eyebrow.

"Who says your no good? I don't see any other Hyuuga going on B-Ranked missions," Naruto said skeptically, looking around them to prove his point.

"Yeah.. But.." Naruto glanced at her, and she hunched her shoulders up defensively, once again poking her fingers together. "But, my father says.. And Kiba-kun..." She trailed off, already knowing it was a pathetically weak argument.

"So you believe everything your father and Kiba says? Sometimes people can be wrong, including me. But I know your strong, because I know you train a lot." Hinata blinked, her head tilting in confusion. "Your hands have a lot of scars on them," He answered knowingly. Sure enough, Hinata's palms, knuckles and fingertips were badly scared, permanently discoloured for the rest of her days. "With as tough as your hands are, you should be really strong, but you let other people's words get to you. Don't let them do that."

Hinata, stunned, smiled a small smile, and nodded. "Ok, Naruto-kun."

Then as if picking the right moment, a large battle worn fox bound at them from the underbrush, then adjusted it's pace to walk at Naruto's side. It's head came clear up to his mid thigh, though considering how short Naruto was, wasn't that high.

_"Sire, the enemy has made camp half a day ahead at this speed."_ It said, sounding like a series of yips and growls to Hinata. The Hyuuga ideally wondered if Naruto's ears had always been pointed like that and why she hadn't noticed._ "They plan to break camp at dawn, and even if thou sleeps through the night, and take to the trees the next day, their capture shall be easy."_

"My thanks Niccelo." Naruto turned his gaze from the large fox ahead to Kiba, slowing to a stop. "Oi, Kiba," He cried out, and the dog-nin grudgingly gave a rumbling "What!" to the vessel. Naruto relayed the information the fox had given to the speculative Kiba.

"Ch, Dumbass! How the hell would you know that!" Kiba barked a reply, looking back at the vessel as he also stopped. His eyes caught on the large fox, who was now purring under the rubbing of Hinata's hand. She giggled softly. At seeing this, Kiba snorted in an annoyed way (and judging from the "Che" from behind Naruto, Sasuke was equally annoyed) and looked away.

Naruto looked to the fox again. "Niccelo, your dismissed.. Unless you'd like to stay with the lovely Hinata-chan." The Hyuuga blushed at this.

_"As I would love to,"_ the fox broke off into a long purr as Hinata rubbed his ears gently, _"I cannot. Mine mate and kittlings need food as of yet." _

"I understand. Good luck with hunting, and if it helps, I spotted an old blind raven back down the road from here." The fox nodded and with a bow, leapt off into the forest. Hinata looked rather put off that the fox had left so suddenly, and Naruto was sorry that he had.

**'Worry not kittling.' **Thought Kyuubi to his cage with a smile, as his body trotted over to the Hyuuga. **'I shall keep this Goddess of Caresses company.' **Naruto laughed, and Hinata looked at him oddly as Kyuubi nudged her hand.

"Tenko says that he'll keep you company now." At this, Kyuubi yipped aloud, and managed to nudge Hinata's hand onto his head. She laughed softly.

* * *

Teams Seven and Eight found a good camp sight not a long while later and Kiba promptly began to bellow out orders, as the rest gathered wood and put up tents or such. Only then, when they all had all finished their assigned duties (grudgingly, mind you) and sat around a small fire, did Kiba go into detail about their mission.

"Ok, shut up, shut up," The dog-nin said impaciently, though it was already quiet. "Y'all know this is a search and destroy mission right?" Naruto and Hinata nodded, as Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura followed suit. Shino merely sat quitely. "Yeah, well apparently the guy we're sposed to find is some kind of small time drug lord who calls himself King of the Whites. Godaime-_sama_," He stressed -sama, and Naruto frowned, "Is overly suspisous and thinks this Whites guy is giving his earnings to some missing-nin to eliminate compitition. Apparenly the missing-nin he hired have been known for attacking Konoha, and Godaime-sama wants to cut off their earnings to hurt them as much as possible."

"And so she want's us to kill the drug lord so the missing-nin won't have the strength to attack Konoha anymore," Sasuke cut in, talking in an icy tone.

"Idiot, don't interupt me... but yeah. It's pretty stupid, the missing-nin will just find a new income and attack Konoha even harder out of vengance. Stupid. We should just bomb the mission, it'll be a failure anyway. Their's no hope for Konoha no matter what she does-"

-Kiba was cut off though, as Naruto's rock hard fist met the dog-nin's face. He went flying off the log he had been sitting on from the sheer force of it, landed with a thud in the dirt. Naruto straightened, and looked down on the dog-nin as he fought to scramble to his feet.

"Fool. If you won't complete missions for your village, you don't deserve to be called a ninja," The vessel said coldly as Kiba rubbed his aching jaw. With this said, Naruto turned on heel and made his way into the small tent not far away, Kyuubi close behind. This gave many of the Team something to think about.

No one noticed Sasuke sneak away from camp that night.

* * *

Camp was broken at dawn, and the Teams took to the trees, and caught up with the drug lord's traveling party in literal leaps and bounds. The party consisted of a small caravan with horses and oxen pulling heavy (and rather suspisiously covered) wagons. Servents in bulky clothes and wrapped bandages to hide their identites scuttled about to obediantly follow King of the Whites' orders as Teams Seven and Eight looked down at their target from their hideout in the trees.

"I say we just jump down there and give 'em a good ass kickin'," Kiba said quitely to the group as Akamaru shook his head in disagreement with a yip. "Che, what do you know?"

"Akamaru's right," Naruto put in, as he listened to Kyuubi's mental translation of Akamaru's speech. "A full out battle will get us nowhere and this guy has been known for disappearing when trouble brews. It would be better if some one henged and sabotoged the caravan so they can't get away without at least loosing their profit. In all of the mess, we can take out the King of the Whites quick and clean. Soo.. Who should go?" As no one vollenteered or rose their voice, Naruto sighed and a foxish scoff was heard from Kyuubi on his shoulder. "How about Shino? His bugs can take out a bunch of servents while he sabotages the caravan. Do you mind?"

Shino, having not spoken a word on the trip so far and not about to break this record, shook his head in a negative, and preformed the necesary handseals for a henge. With a poof and a leap, he hit the ground a new boy, looking just like all of the other servents, and dashed off to the caravan. The Teams quickly lost sight of him in the large crowd, but were sure he was doing his job as servent after servent dropped to the ground before they could even make a sound. Soon after a two of the wagons groaned then tipped over before any of the remaining servents could save them, suddenly missing one or more wheel. Small swarms of chakra eating bugs could be seen flying close to the ground as they went for another group of servents (obviously wondering why their comrads were falling), but never made it as a fire jutsu incenerated them as they flew. Seeing their plan go to the dogs (no pun intended), Teams Seven and the rest of Eight lept from their hideout to the ground below, dashing off to help Shino.

Just as they found him (fortunately unharmed) however, a slow clapping filled the air, coming from King of the Whites as he looked down on the group from atop his own personal wagon.

"Maa, maa, look at this, look at this. I was expecting a sabotage but a few scraggly weakling shinobi trying to destroy my buisness? It's laughable. And when I had such a nice little tip that shinobi were coming, this is obserd. Now we can't let you go about and destroy my profits, now can we?"

"How did you know we were coming!" Kiba growled loudly. King of the Whites just chuckled as a middle aged man might do with a naive child.

"Why, I just told you, silly mutt." Kiba's growling became louder and many of the Teams frowned. "I had a tip."

Finally fed up, the dog-nin bellowed a command to either Akamaru or the Teams, it was never known, and charged forward toward the King of the Whites. But with an arrogant smile, and a snap of his fingers, a bang was heard and the entire area went up in foul smelling smoke. As it cleared, the caravan, servents, and the King of the Whites were gone.

* * *

Ohhhh evil King of the Whites. Aren't I witty, couldnt think of a name for a drug lord so I use a name of a flower instead. Totally awesome. Lol. 

Anyway, Kiba sure is a jerk, isnt he? Well he'll be put into place, don't worry. See how Naruto does it in Chapter five (were he will actually fight! -collective gasp- we get to see some of the stuff he can do!)

'azhe out.


	5. BOSNIA

Hehehe! Chapter 5. It was my B-Day yesterday (April 3) and I got a cell phone. Yay! Anyway, Im still writing ahead on Fortune's Fool and Im getting close to the ending. Unfortuneatly, Ive never been very good with stretching out stories to epic lengths so it will probably only be 11 chapters. Sorry guys. Ill try to stretch it to eleven and a half with the epilogue, but no promises. Sigh. That means you guys are about halfway through it. It makes me sad.

But not to worry! I have another story idea in mind. It's going to be called either King Kitsune or King Kyuubi, I have yet to decide. It will not be your ordenary Naruto fiction. Winkwink nudgenudge. Cough. See if you can find the relation of the title with what I have in mind/ the story/ another title from something different/COUGH. But SHHH! Don't say it in a review, its a surprise. Privately PM me and if you get it right Ill let you in with whats going down. Winkwink. Lol.

Ahh that and Im contemplating continuing Inari's Bane...

THANK YOU Impersonating-an-entity! Awesome betaness.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**B.O.S.N.I.A**

By Mirazhe1

The smoke, white and near solid looking as it had a shimmering quality, cleared slowly and many of the group slowed their coughing. For a few though, such as the Dog, Fox, and Bug nins, continued coughing or squirming slightly.

"Damn," Kiba managed to curse with a sneeze, "Some shit was in that smoke... Killin' my sense of smell..." A sneeze. "Damn it.." He rubbed his poor nose vigorously, as Akamaru miserably rubbed his nose in the dirt to rid the sent. Shino stood off a ways, slightly more composed but his hands squirmed uncomfortably in his pockets as a few bugs darted from him, flying in a disoriented way.

"It was chakra charged," He commented dryly, talking for the first time in his discomfort. His brows furrowed behind his glasses as a few more bugs flew about, confused by the recent burst of chakra that seemed to still hang in the air.

Naruto was frowning, nose scrunched sharply, as he kneeled next to Kyuubi on the ground. The small fox demon was snorting every so often.

**'Chakra charged indeed. It hangs in the air like a plague, confusing the silent one's insects. The smoke itself has killed the senses. Tracking this King of Whites shall be nigh impossible.' **Kyuubi thought to Naruto with a snort, struggling to compose himself as he attempted to clear his nose. Naruto straightened with a nod, and looked to the rest of his teammates. Hinata and Sakura looked worried as Sasuke gazed at the group coldly.

"The blast must have been a distraction. The Whites guy couldn't have gone far but our senses are shot," Naruto informed them, scrunching up his nose a bit more, twitching uncomfortably. "Hinata, do you think you can find a trail of some kind?" Hinata blinked for a moment, then began poking her fingers as she hunched over, her shoulders nearly touching her ears.

"I... d-don't know, Naruto-k-kun..." She averted her eyes to the ground. "I-I'm not very good w-with my Byakug-gan.." Sasuke scoffed loudly and Kiba frowned but amazingly remained silent. Naruto merely cocked his head and gave a foxy smile after a moment.

"Says who?" Hinata blinked, looked away and began to answer, but paused. She remembered. _"Who says you're no good?"_ He had said, not even a day ago. Her eyes hardened after a moment, becoming determined.

"Ok, Naruto-kun." Performing the necessary seals, her eyes powered up and she looked about. Chakra seemed to hang in the air, still charging what was left of the smoke. Soon she found a trail of chakra hanging in the air, where the smoke had stuck to the caravan as it escaped and left a trail. With a nod to the others, she followed it, jumping from tree branch to branch.

Sasuke scoffed as he followed, obviously displeased he was following a 'weakling'. "We'll loose the trail soon; this inept couldn't follow a road," he said aloud, seemingly to himself. Sakura seemed to agree with him. Naruto frowned but said nothing, Kiba running beside him. The vessel quickly noticed the far away look in the dog nin's eyes and large blue eyes blinked.

"What are you looking at?" Naruto asked him, blinking again as Kyuubi snorted knowingly on his shoulder. He closed his eyes in an arrogant way, turning his head away as he snorted also.

"I never noticed Hinata had such a B.O.S.N.I.A." He answered, looking back with a mischievous grin. Akamaru, riding atop the dog nin's head, whined quietly with disapproval.

"B.O.S.N.I.A?"

"Big Ol' Standard Ninja Issue Ass." Naruto frowned at him.

**'Lecherous mutt. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,'** Kyuubi commented dryly. Naruto blinked, wondering when Kyuubi gave advice on love.

"You do know Hinata can hear you, right?" Naruto growled. Kiba shrugged nonchalantly, sparing a glance at Hinata who now had her hands in front of her from their view (most likely poking her fingers together), and her ears bright red, but diligently still following the trail.

"Who cares? Keh, that weakling couldn't do anything to me," Kiba retorted arrogantly.

"For all you know," Naruto's frown deepened, glanced at Kyuubi, and relayed to Kiba, "Thou callest me a dog before thou hast cause. But since I am a dog, beware my fangs." And with a snort in unison with Kyuubi, he sped up to run at Hinata's side. Kiba merely blinked at the fox nin, stunned by the rather ironic analogy.

* * *

They continued for a long while but inevitably they had to rest as Hinata's eyes were pushed to the limit. Not bothering to set up any kind of camp (the terrain below the trees was much too rough), Teams 7 and 8 merely bunkered down in the trees' oversized branches. Hinata, exhausted, promptly went to sleep, despite the sun just lowering on the horizon. Fortunately, Shino was courteous enough to unpack her blanket for her and cover her with it. The rest of the Teams also unpacked the bare necessities such as rations and blankets and began to hunker down. 

"It's useless. At this rate, we'll never find the caravan." Naruto's slightly pointed ears perked at the sound of Sasuke's discriminating voice a few branches away, as he handed part of his rations to Kyuubi.

Akamaru wined softly nearby. "That weakling is probably leading us in circles." The vessel soon heard, much to his distaste, Kiba's approval.

"I wonder sometimes why she's still a ninja... Would make a better house wife." For the second time that mission, Kiba was knocked backward by the force of Naruto's punch. He was knocked off the branch as Naruto stole the place he was standing on, but the dog-nin grabbed another branch as he flew, hauling himself onto that one. "B-Bastard! Again! Why the hell'd you do that for!"

"You're a part of a team, if you haven't noticed, Ass-hole," Naruto growled, standing firm. Kyuubi clung to his shoulder, snarling silently. "You're not the only one on it, and the rest of the members are just as valuable as you are, if not more."

"Hey, you got a problem how I run this team," Kiba retorted, "then why don't you run it?" the dog nin growled back at Naruto for a moment, blinked, then smirked arrogantly. Akamaru crouched at his feet worriedly, tail lowered and looking up at his master uncertainly. "I'll make you a deal, Fox-spit. How bout we fight and if you win you can run this team. If I win then you have to shut up for the rest of the mission and give me all of your pay for the next month." Naruto frowned; he had no desire to be team leader, but if it meant better team efficiency he would do it. He voiced his approval. Kiba's smirk widened.

"Fine then," Kiba said, as he activated his jutsu with a "Shikyaku no Jutsu!" and leapt forward. "Akamaru!" The nin-dog hesitated, if only for a moment, and jumped forward to his master. He swallowed the pill thrown at him, and poofed into a copy of Kiba at the sound of "Jujin Bunshin!" The two flew toward Naruto, side by side with claws outstretched. Naruto deftly hopped to another branch, noticing out of the corner of his eye as Sasuke used the distraction replace himself with a simple bunshin and slowly sneak away. He nodded to Kyuubi as he jumped from his shoulder. Kyuubi nodded back as his vessel threw a scroll to him and caught it in his mouth. The fox demon bound off through the branches to follow Sasuke as Naruto quickly activated a jutsu.

Unfortunately, while doing this, the vessel had no time to dodge as Kiba and Akamaru attached from both sides, claws shredding through parts of his open, weighted vest, black shirt (and, unfortunately, through the dark orange spiral clan symbol, Naruto sadly noted), and skin. Naruto quickly bounded to a branch, favoring his wounds as Kiba took a minute to gloat.

"Che, little Fox-spit; seems your partner abandoned you," the real Kiba called out, hands on his hips in a mocking way. Naruto merely chuckled as he stood.

"Dumb Ass, my partner never leaves me," the vessel answered, idly placing his hand on his thankfully-still-clothed belly. "I, at least, don't hide behind my partners and let them do the work. But... if you want to play it that way…" Drifting off, Naruto's hands went through familiar seals, and quietly called the words "Kitsune Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In an instant, a small army of identical foxes the size of large dogs poofed into existence, filling the trees. Kiba laughed at them.

"Idiot! You stick out like a sore thumb!" Shaking his head with a small smirk, Naruto backed up along his branch and his image melted into that of a fox, the same as his 'Kitsune Bunshin'. Blinking for a moment, the dog-nin regained his composure and began to sniff out the vessel with what little sense of smell he had, Akamaru helping him. He was unsuccessful however, as all of the foxes and Naruto, being in the middle of summoning them, smelled of bunshin smoke. He could hear chuckling, which seemed to be coming from all around him.

"I developed this jutsu just for this type of situation. Probably only a Hyuuga could find me now…" With that the foxes began to dance about, bounding from branch to branch. Every so often they would attack with a scratch or bite, which was easily deflected by either Kiba or Akamaru, but sheer numbers began to overwhelm, and cuts and bruises began to accumulate. Finally fed up, Kiba bellowed a command to Akamaru and they attacked.

"Gatsuga!"

* * *

"Y-you," King of the Whites managed to stammer out, scooting backward in his throne. The figure before him merely nodded. "But y-you're with that band of shinobi! You're here to kill me... Aren't you?" The figure shook his head. 

"It's a shame anyone could ever mistake me as a shinobi for... THAT village," the figure said, with a snort. "I was the one to warn you of our coming earlier... Under a Henge, of course. I come to warn you that we're after you again. I'll try to dissuade them as much I can, but it's only a matter of time before they arrive." King of the Whites looked at the figure for a moment before smirking evilly.

"Disloyal to your village, eh? Good trait for this business. I suppose you want payment for your troubles?" King of the Whites leaned forward and steepled his fingers, his middle-aged shoulders square and business-like.

"Of course. All I want is for you to give a message to the organization you hire. Tell them the last true Sharingan wants out of Konoha gakure... Oh, and make sure not to recognize me when my team comes." Red Sharingan eyes flashed dangerously and King of the Whites was squirming in his seat once again. Unnoticed by both, slitted eyes more red and dangerous than Sharingan shone in the back of the dark hall.

* * *

Leaves and bark flew through the air as Kiba and Akamaru performed Gatsuga between (and in some cases, through) the trees, taking out dozens of foxes in poofs of smoke as they did. They flew forward, a spinning drill aimed for one of the last groups of Kitsune clones. They heard a cry of "Hari Jizo!" and dog duo were stunned by the impact, and backwards, both cut and bleeding, by a yellow, spiky mass. The last remaining clones bit down on conveniently equipped smoke bombs (which had been unnoticed by Kiba and Akamaru) and the area went up in smoke. As the air cleared, Kiba found himself suspended by his hood, a Kunai pressed firmly to his throat by Naruto. He looked about to see Akamaru not far off, held by the nape of his neck by the last Kistune clone. He looked back up to Naruto, who was smiling foxily. 

"Fine... You win."

This was the image Sasuke returned to, silently dispelling his bunshin to take its place. He frowned. It seems the dead last (as he had started to refer to Naruto, gaining the habit from Sakura) was the team leader now. How annoying. His personal mission would be tons harder now, but he couldn't challenge the fox-nin just yet. It was still too early and he was still too much of a mystery. No, it would be best to just sit back and analyze for a while. It would be worth it in the end.

Naruto finally set Kiba down on the branch and the Kitsune clone was dispelled, letting Akamaru down also. Naruto looked back at the group, after using a jutsu to repair his clothes, and saw Kyuubi sitting patiently with them, scroll in his mouth. With a smile, the vessel took the scroll, stored it and let the fox demon hop onto his shoulder.

**'A Kunai. He hast given our lives for a Kunai,'** Was all Kyuubi muttered in the back of Naruto's mind. The vessel quickly saw the analogy and mentally frowned.

"Now then," Naruto announced to the group as the last of the sun dipped over the horizon, "We continue in the morning. Get a good night's sleep."

* * *

When morning came, Naruto, Kiba, and their partners' noses were clear and healed enough to track again. They followed the trail through the rough terrain, unable to pick up the sent from above and Naruto mentally noted that Sasuke's sent, faint and covered, followed the caravan's path. However, he stayed silent. 

The Teams finally spotted the King of the Whites' base, carefully hidden in the valley between two large, tree-covered hills. It was similar to Konoha: the buildings were just as packed and crowded, and nearly all of them had balconies extending to nowhere. Unlike Konoha, however, the buildings, so packed, were rammed up against the hills, piled on top of each other. Wooden pathways wound up the hills to access the buildings higher up, and openings in the hills spoke of a network of caves. And there, at the far end of the valley, was a tall building rivaling the size of a mansion, built and shaped right in the hill.

"His sent leads to the mansion," Kiba declared, though not in his loud and arrogant tone this time. Naruto silently agreed with a nod.

"Hinata, can you look and see if he's in there," Naruto asked, looking back at the Hyuuga. She nodded, now determined, and activated her Byakugan. After a long moment of searching she spoke up.

"He's in the throne room," She said, eyes still intent and staring into space. "But he's heavily guarded; he has anything from thugs to... low-ranking nin, I think, scattered through the castle." Hinata's eyes finally relaxed, the bulging veins shrinking to their normal size. Naruto sat silent for a moment, the Teams waiting for his command.

"Ok, this is what we're gonna do..."

* * *

The King of the Whites was, to be put quite frankly, becoming irritated. He had had that wonderful little tip for him, that the Ninja were going to come today, but geez! They could at least be on time; it was many hours after mid-day by now. He had followed his end of the deal, already sending his message to the missing-nin, and he was expecting his tip to be accurate. The King of the Whites frowned, glancing about his throne room at the numerous guards standing watch. None had so much as sneezed for hours now so it was no wonder he was so bored. He sighed, leaning back into his throne. 

He toppled out of it however, as his mansion quaked beneath him. He scrambled to his feet, looking about at his guards.

"What's going on! Get me a report." The guards merely blinked at him, and all poofed up in smoke. A single one was left, pink haired and smiling mischievously. Pulling her eye-lid down with her finger in an insulting manner, she stuck her tongue out at him. More poofs filled the hall, and the rest of the two Teams appeared. "H-how! How did you get in!" King of the Whites cried wildly, eyes wide. "My tip!" His fear filled eyes darted to Sasuke. "Your t-"

He would never finish though, as said Shinobi drew a Kunai and deftly flicked it at the drug lord. It found home in King of the Whites neck, and he fell back, gurgling uselessly. The rest of the Teams looked at Sasuke in either fear, amazement, or disgust. He scoffed.

"He is no use to us now," was his justification. Naruto frowned.

"Are the guards eliminated and evacuated?" The vessel asked the group, and Sasuke and Shino confirmed silently. "The explosive tags?" Kiba and Hinata nodded. Naruto's frown grew to a smirk, outstretching his arm so Kyuubi could jump from the floor to his arm and crawl up to his shoulder. "Then let's get the hell outta here!"

The Teams quickly evacuated and positioned themselves in the trees, a few tied and unconscious guards below. "Who would like to do the honors?" Naruto finally asked, looking at his Teams once more. Shino, in a rare display of outgoingness, silently volunteered by making a seal. Then, as if on a roll, he apparently decided to make the situation ironic…

"Boom."

The afternoon sky lit up with oranges and yellows from the explosion.

* * *

The trip back to Konoha gakure was a short one, despite lugging back the ex-guards for interrogation. With little a word, the Teams separated and went on their way, going home, or in Naruto's case, to the Hokage for his mission report. He took the usual route, via wall, ceiling, and hall, and was soon standing in front of Tsunade, whose hands were steepled beneath her chin while looking icily at Naruto. 

"I do believe I gave the role of Team leader to Kiba," She said calmly, though not in an angry calm. Naruto concluded it was more of a resigned, faint annoyance.

"Kiba was inefficient as Team leader. We fought for the position and I won it." Godaime sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.

"I was expecting that." She frowned. "And anything on our little traitor?" Naruto smirked, dug a scroll out of his supplies pouch and unrolled it on one of the small clear areas of her desk. The scroll was blank, but after a few seals, colored ink seeped to the surface, creating a picture which began to move. It showed Sasuke's back mostly, but moved to different angles every so often, as if the imaginary cameraman moved about. They watched as Sasuke arrived at King of the Whites base, creating a deal with him.

**"The traitor failed to notice me throughout. Fool," **Kyuubi stated from his perch atop a tall stack of papers on Tsunade's desk, conveniently just above the scroll.

"He snuck away while Kiba and I fought," Naruto explained, "I activated a Jutsu that would record everything Kyuubi saw onto a scroll and sent him after the traitor." Godaime nodded approvingly.

"This is good evidence, but we're going to need more." She looked up to the vessel's questioning look. "This could be easily forged with a Henge, but backed with more, we could have a case." Naruto smiled foxily, Kyuubi matching with an actual fox grin.

"Then we'll find some more evidence."

* * *

Oohhh look at that. All done. I had someone guess where the fog scene was from in Chapter 3 (Fire Bringer, by David Clement Davis) and they got nearly all the plot to this story, and what the next project is more specificly, Lol. That what you get for being smart. 

But stick around and read through chapter six when Naruto has to team up with the Ino-Shika-Cho and a nasty secret is discovered about Sasuke...

'azhe out.


	6. The Noblest Ninja

Saa Saa... Lookie here. Naruto is gonna get into his first MAJOR action packy battle thing now :) Fun Fun. Ah well.. This is one of my favourite chapters anyway.

Speaking of favourite chapters, Fortune's Fool is officially finished. It will end at a wopping 11 and a half chapters (sorta twelve, but the last is hardly half the length of the rest). I was rather bitter sweet to end it; I had a lot of fun writing it, but all things do come to an end I guess... Ahh well. Chapter updates will slow to once a month (this has potential to shorten), since I want to draw out the story as slowly as possible since its so laughably short. Plus this gives me more time to write King Kyuubi (who's plot will be reviled in the last chapter, if I haven't posted it by then), and Inari's Bane (though its highly unlikely; I have this odd inklink of Naruto recieving part of Kyuubi's pelt as a birthday gift, but as to what he would actually DO with it is beyond me. Fur clothing in Naru-world just seems gody to me, lol. Suggestions anyone? Laughs.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing...

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**The Noblest Ninja**

By Mirazhe1

Naruto was slightly surprised as he smelled the all too familiar sent of Inari-Zushi as he entered the steakhouse. The sweet sent glided past his nose, enticing him to follow, but he stubbornly declined; he had his addiction and it was Ramen and nothing else. He wasn't the type of person to cheat on his all awesome Ramen like that. Kyuubi, on the other hand, was another story. An old saying catnip is to cats as Inari-Zushi is to foxes drifted through the vessel's mind. Knowing this, Naruto worriedly looked down at his tenant who had a dazed look to his eyes and drool dripping to the floor. The vessel quickly cut most of his supply of chakra going to the fox demon's body, causing it to slump tiredly. It still breathed, but looked exhausted and sullen. Naruto could hear the wordless cries of Kyuubi to let him have just the littlest bit of Inari-Zushi, but he knew better. Ignoring these silent cries, Naruto flashed a foxy smile as the waitress handed him a menu and led him to a booth.

The vessel sat, setting Kyuubi's tired body in the seat across from him, and lazily flipped through the menu, idly pondering what to order, other than at least one box of Inari-Zushi to use as blackmail to get a few new Justu later. He blinked as a lazy "Troublesome" caught his pointed ear. He straightened from his slouched position, annoyed that he couldn't quite see over the booth even then, but eventually peered over the seat to the next booth over. He was surprised to see a spitting image of the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho group, though younger. But how odd it was, to see that the Ino part of the group was definitely female.

"How troublesome," said one of the group, one of which Naruto decided was from the Shika side of the the spectrum. "Its pretty stupid to spy on someone when you have no spying skills." Yes, he was definitely a Nara.

"Who said I was trying to be sneaky," Naruto said with a vulpine grin. The rest of the group was looking at him now as he leaned on the back of his seat to look over the booth.

"But you don't deny you were spying," the Nara said. He peered at Naruto for a long moment before sighing. "Your annoying." The vessel shrugged, obviously not caring. The Cho of the group gazed at Naruto as he devoured his chips obviously agreeing with his friend. The Ino looked broken between sides. Their so called conversation was cut short, however, as the Ino-Shika-Cho's food arrived and Naruto's waitress came to take his order. As a final word, Naruto merely turned and plopped onto his bum to sit in his seat the proper way.

* * *

The vessel was happily opening the door of the late Yondaime's estate a few days later, Kyuubi grudgingly following. His blackmailing plan with the Inari-Zushi had been an amazing success, and he had gotten a few good Justu from it. He looked about his father's house with pride. Though the fact Yondaime was his father was not new to him, the fact he was actually living in a house that he had inherited from his father was. And boy, was it cool; it was giant, filled with scrolls, books, and interesting weapons. Though it was a house, it wasn't quite a home just yet, but Naruto was working on it. He stayed up late through the night, reading scrolls or experimenting with minor Justu, when in the earliest hours of the morning, Kyuubi, sitting in his lap, perked up. 

**"Kittling.. Lower thine weights and gather thine supplies. A battle nears," **The fox demon said ominously as his nose twitched, testing the air. Naruto nodded, removed his vest, pulled off his shirt, and hefted off the weights that lay beneath. Though he lowered them and the weighted vest to the floor carefully, the wood cracked and groaned dangerously from the weight even with the gentle desent. He retreated into a room, but was back a moment later wearing arm guards and no doubt light Shinobi armour he had acquired in his travels under his shirt. He carried a supplies belt, filled to the brim with smoke bombs, explosive tags, and even soldier pills just in case, along with a full Kunai and Shuriken holsters, both of which he put on.

Naruto quickly paced away once again, retrieving a smaller, odd looking as the knives and kunai handles stuck from the top, weapon holster and pair of gloves from the kitchen (the vessel suspisiously asked Kyuubi how they had gotten in the kitchen of all things, and he could practically see the fox scuffing it's feet on its caged floor and adverting his eyes). Slipping the black metal plated gloves into his pocket, the vessel assisted his tennat's body in strapping on the holster. And not a second too soon, as the ground quaked beneath them, causing many scrolls and items to crash to the floor in the house. Kyuubi jumped up to Naruto's shoulder, and with a seal, they poofed away.

* * *

Naruto and Kyuubi poofed back into existence in the lobby of Hokage tower, which looked as though a tornado had flown through. Oddly enough, Godaime was there and not in her office, bellowing orders. The vessel made his way to her via ceiling (it was much to crowded below) and hopped down next to her. Tsunade seemed unsurprised. 

"Whats going on?"

**'Foolish Kittling, I told thee before. A battle!' **

"We're being attacked. We think its the Missing-nin organization King of the Whites was paying. They're prolly pissed that we killed off their income," Tsunade answered quickly, reading a report that was handed to her. She handed it to a person and gave them an order Naruto didn't make out. "I just sent most of our most powerful or destructive ninja to the east wall," Godaime answered his unasked question. "The heaviest of the attack is on that wall so I need ninja that can take out many enemies at once. Team Asuma have been assigned there." Tsunade paused to sign a paper.

"The Ino-Shika-Cho?" Tsunade nodded.

"Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji," She said, managing to produce an exasperated sigh between franticly signing papers. "They have yet to successfully finish a mission and I don't want them flaking out on the village now. Get over there, take out as many enemies as possible and make sure Team Asuma does too." With a nod, the vessel made a seal and poofed away once again.

* * *

When Naruto arrived at the East wall, that was now a battle field, it was eerily silent. The enemy appeared as if they retreated for the moment, and, since no one actively protected the wall at the moment, Naruto guessed it was being fortified from the inside, if the calling commands of workers on the other side meant anything. 

Many bodies, both Konoha and Missing-nin, lay scattered about, rather dead. Everything was dully illuminated by the sliver of a moon overhead, making all objects look black, white, and the miles of gray in between. Kyuubi's tail twitched slightly and both the fox and Naruto seemingly disappeared, they ran so fast. A short pause, and with a whistling noise, a rain of Kunai came down, most of the sharp weapons thudding into the ground. Both Naruto and Kyuubi watched this from far away in a tree, as the vessel chucked a wooden kunai, painted dark green. It flew through the air silently, and Naruto was rewarded for his efforts when the body of a foreign ninja thumped to the ground, the wooden kunai protruding through a bloody eye socket.

With a nonchalant sniff, Naruto caught the sent of one of the Ino-Shika-Cho and proceeded to follow it through the tree tops. He finally found them, after killing many ninja along the way, huddled in a small clearing, dirty and bruised but relatively unscathed. The team tensed Chouji stepped to the front in a defensive way as Naruto hopped from the canopy to the forest floor, but they visibly relaxed as they saw his headband.

"Your the back-up? How troublesome.." Kyuubi, on Naruto's shoulder, flicked his tail, snorted and looked to the trees.

"Whatever. Its not safe here, we need to leave." A wooden kunai silently flew out from the undergrowth to the canopy and for the second time that battle the corpse of a ninja dropped to the ground. A kitsune bunshin stepped into the undergrowth, looking ackward. "Jeeze, these guys just drop like flies." With that, the bunshin popped into non-existence; It had proved it's point and now the Ino-Shika-Cho were definitely ready to move. They took to the trees.

"We need to find another safe spot," Shikamaru stated, looking about lazily for a potential area as they ran. Chouji made an approving noise around the quiet munching of his chips.

"What'd do you mean? Our mission is to eliminate as many of the enemy as possible.." Naruto asked with a frown, as he looked behind them. They were going in the opposite direction of the enemy, according to Kyuubi's nose. Ino scoffed, in that ditzy arrogant girl sort of way.

"Stupid. Out of all of the Rookie Nine, ours is the weakest team. Even if we work with a strategy," Ino shot a glare at Shikamaru, who looked away and muttered something, "We always turn out the losers." Ino's wishing to be on Sasuke-kun's team went unsaid.

"From what I've heard, your team has never successfully completed a mission, D-rank or otherwise. How do you know your losers if you never try in the first place?" Team Asuma didn't answer, Ino and Shikamaru looking away as Chouji gave a shrug as he devoured a chip. Naruto sighed in an irritated way, and Kyuubi's nose twitched, eyes narrowing. Jumping to the front of the group, the vessel stopped, causing the group to halt. "If you just tried to complete a mission, it would be less troublesome in the end. We're going back and we're going to complete our mission."

"And who gave you command of this team," Ino said doubtfully.

"Godaime. And she told me to get you to do your mission, even if it means kickin' you in the ass to do it." The team frowned in disapproval until a crash came through the trees behind them. Naruto's eyes widened as a large group of nin blocked their escape; he had failed to sense these nin and failed to notice Kyuubi's warning.

**'Foolish kittling, pay attention.'**

The enemy, either incredibly strong or incredibly sneaky, tensed, drawing kunai and preparing justu, but never produced an attack.

It was their turn to be surprised as an odd sound hurled through the undergrowth. Before they could react (this proved they were merely very sneaky), the enemy was mercilessly slaughtered as twin "Gatsuga"s tore through them. As the attack stopped, Kiba and Akamaru stood before them grinning wolfishly (albeit, splattered in blood). Naruto smiled, glad to see someone familiar, leapt over to Kiba's branch, and greeted him roughly.

"Kiba," The vessel said with a large, foxy smile. "Didn't expect to see a weakling mutt like you here."

"One to talk, fox-spit," The dog-nin joked back. Naruto was silent, only for a moment; he had never quite gotten over being called Demon-spit so many times in his youth. But after a short moment he smiled again, he knew Kiba meant well. Kyuubi, however, hissed laughter in a foxish way at the irony. Kiba continued, "You need any help here? Figured you would; could smell ya with with these weaklings a mile away." Ino went into a silent rage, whether from being called weak or agreeing with him, they didn't know.

"Nah," Naruto replied, without hesitation. "We can win this." Kyuubi yipped in agreement. The dog nin and his partner laughed heartily. "Whats our position?" Naruto asked more seriously now. Kiba slowly sobered from his laughing fit.

"The enemy's first wave retreated an hour ago and they've been regroupin' since we gave them a good beating," Kiba grinned widely at this. "They've sent enemy scouts out, mostly ninja, but they're relitively easy to take out. Allied scouts suspect they're gatherin' reinforcements." The dog-nin's wide grin shrank quickly, though, as another thought came to him. "But watch your back, Naruto. I sented Uchiha earlier, when the enemy first attacked; there were alota enemy sents near him and very few Konoha-nin. Figured the stubborn bastard would be too high and mighty to radio for help and went to go save his sorry Uchiha ass. When I got there, he was gone. All tha' was left was a few corpses of Konoha ninja, with a bunch of kunai stickin' out of 'em." Kiba paused, frowning, then continued. "There was lota blood around.. But the kunai were Uchiha's. I could smell it."

Naruto, along with Shikamaru and Chouji, frowned deeply, while Ino looked on in horror.

"S..Sasuke-kun would never do such a thing!" Ignoring her, Naruto looked to Kyuubi on his shoulder.

"Tenko." Kyuubi nodded, and leapt away through the trees. After a few minutes of gathering information from Kiba, such as were Sasuke's sent led to, the vessel received word from his tenent.

**'The dog speaks truth. The traitor's scent leads away to the enemies post; Mine eyes can see the smoke from their camp,' **Stated Kyuubi solemnly from within Naruto's mind. While the fox demon's body was far away, his soul and mind was still within his jailers navel. Naruto cursed aloud.

"And this was the noblest ninja of all," The vessel said sarcastically. Shikamaru, recognizing the quote, snorted at the way Nartuo morbidly twisted it to the situation. However Naruto smiled. "But who cares! If the bastard wants to run away and hide behind an army, then we'll slaughter the army, break his legs, and drag 'im back to Konoha!" While Team Asuma looked disbelieving, Kiba and Akamaru laughed loudly.

"Of coarse! Lets kick some ninja ass!" Akamaru uttered a deep bark at this.

"Gather together all the Konoha-nin you can and take them to the wall. We need to be ready for the next wave. We'll catch up in a bit." The dog-nins nodded enthusiastically and bounded off. The vessel turned back to his team. "So, you guys ready to fight?"

"Not really," Chouji as he popped a potato chip in his mouth. After a moment, Ino spoke up.

"I think we should go with him," She said, backing away from her team to stand by Naruto's side. The vessel blinked, not expecting a girl to go into battle so willingly.

"Its too troublesome, we'd get killed. Konoha will probably win anyway," retorted Shikamaru. Chouji stood off, looking indecisive. While Ino was generally correct, he couldn't leave his friend so quickly.

"And what if Konoha doesn't win?" she continued.

"Then we run away. We aren't missing-nin if the village we defect from doesn't exist."

"That which does not kill you, will undoubtedly try again," interrupted Nartuo. "The enemy is out for revenge; they won't stop till every member of Konoha is six feet under an' pushin' up daisies." Shikamaru hesitated, uncertain.

"We should go, Shikamaru.. We'd be worse than Sasuke if we just left now," Chouji finally spoke up, moving to stand beside the vessel and mind-nin. The shadow-nin paused, mentally debating the possibilities as he stood before them before sighing.

"Your all so troublesome.. Fine, we'll fight, but we need to come up with a plan."

"Way ahead of ya," Naruto said with a foxish grin as he pulled small pills eerily similar to soldier pills from his utility belt.

* * *

The battle field was ghostly quiet as the Konoha-nin silently prepared themselves for the upcoming battle. The pale beginnings of false dawn began creep over the horizon, lightening the wall of Konoha in pale grays and pastels. A large section of the forest around the wall of Konoha had been cleared with the last wave (they had been coming and going all night in small amounts, slowly saping Konoha's strenght), leaving the ninja open and visible to the world. 

According to the scouts, the enemy had, in a weak display of strategy, sent most of their ninja in the repetitive waves, obviously expecting Konoha to fall sooner. All that was left now was a few samurai and various ranked missing-nin. ...Well OK, hundreds of samurai and various ranked missing-nin. Even with the relative weakness of samurai, the Konoha nin were weak from the attacls, and with the number of hands advancing, traps and sneak attacks would have been useless. Surely an all out battle was about to ensue.

The Ino-Shika-Cho stood off from the main group a ways, carefully holding the little pills offered to them by Naruto. Said vessel and his partner were absent, supplying more of the pills to various Konoha ninja (whom obviously didn't know of the Kyuubi; the ones that did flat out refused to even acknowledge the vessel's presence). They silently thought back to how Naruto explained; explained battle tactics, explained how the pills were souped up soldier pills (of his own design) and how they would give a huge temporary kick to your justu and chakra. Apart from extreme exhaustion afterwards, they were harmless, being made of strong herbs and natural steroids.

But even as the Konoha Ninja prepared and reiforced the wall, the enemy was advancing. The shining armour of samurai and the quick, darting forms of ninja slowly rose over the hill, solemnly marching to battle. As the ends of the army's lines broke over the hill, Naruto spotted a lone figure behind them, standing dark and smug. His keen eyes made out a few details, and Kyuubi snarled through his teeth. Uchiha Sasuke. Standing behind the army to watch Konoha's destruction like the smug bastard he was.

All down the line of Konoha ninja, team captains called out warning. The ninja braced themselves, those supplied with pills quickly swallowed them.

Naruto, rejoining his team, silently pulled his black gloves from his pocket and slipped them on. The metal plates attatched to the dark fabric seemed to melt and reform into cruel looking talons over already clawish nails on Naruto's hands. Kyuubi, at his jailer's feet, nimbly twisted and clutched a few small, ordinary looking knives in his teeth from the odd kunai pouch strapped to his back leg.

Regardless to the near overwhelming boost of chakra, the Ino-Shika-Cho looked doubtful as they gazed at the advancing army. Their numbers were overwhelming.

"We're out-numbered," Ino stated fearfully.

"This wave's a lot bigger than all the other ones," Chouji stated blandly, a bit appalled by the sheer numbers.

"Don't worry. Just stick to the strategy: split 'em down the middle, I'll keep the path clear, and we go get Sasuke," Naruto replied calmly. Shikamaru nodded, but frowned.

"Its a good strategy.. But with a very low success rate. Very troublesome."

"Saa, don't worry. It'll work, I promise," Naruto said with a foxy grin. The team looked at him disbelievingly. The vessel seemed to pout for a moment, as Kyuubi mentally laughed at him, until he spotted Kiba not far off, with his own temporary team. He looked antsy, ready to jump into the fray as Naruto's pills took effect. "Ah common guys. Be like Kiba over there." He gestured to the dog-nin and his partner, who were snarling with a wolfish grin as the enemy advanced. "Don't think of it as being out-numbered, think of it as unlimited target selection!"

Though the team didn't exactly laugh at this, it seemed to break the tension and their attention turned to the enemy a little more readily this time.

At last, as the Konoha nin rushed forward in unison to meet their enemy. Many merely began to hack and throw around justu in a mad attempt to kill as many of the enemy before they met exhaustion. The Ino-Shika-Cho, Naruto, and Kiba, however, hardly moved from the wall and kept their distance from the army. They did, however, meet at the estimated middle of the enemy's mass and began their plan.

"Kagemane no Jutsu!" cried out Shikamaru in a very un-Shikamaru type way. Immediately his shadow came to life in the dim light, stretching beyond its normal length across the battle field to easily capture a huge group of the enemy in its vice. The samurai (and even a few low ranking ninja dumb enough not to get out of the way) struggled but it was futile. Their free comrades around them failed to notice their plight or chose to ignore at as they were rather busy dying.

Now Chouji stepped up next to Shikamaru, who, with the pills effect, effortlessly held down the masses. "Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" His arm grew to monstrous proportions, and with a sweeping motion, sent many of the captured enemy, along with many of their comrades, flying through the air. The attack had left a large dent in the front of the opposing army. Ino, standing behind them, ran to the front.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu!" Her body slumped to the ground, and her team mates slowed her fall. The enemy was beginning to notice this small band of ninja killing off their comrades and advanced to attack. Shikamaru and Chouji fended them off with kunai and minor jutsu to protect Ino's body. The dogish partners anxiously waited for the mind-nin to awaken, their signal to attack. While the pills had upped Ino's effitancy and speed to preform the jutsu, it would still take a while to switch through so many bodies. Slowly, a trend formed as the enemy along the middle of the army began to turn on themselves and kill their comrades.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Kyuubi darted off to help disorganize the flanks of the army to aid their fellow ninja. Kyuubi sprinted forward, ran up Naruto's back, and leapt high into the air. The fox demon twisted, letting the knives in his jaw fly up. Naruto turned away from the army and preformed the jutsu silently (for he knew Sasuke was watching his every move from far away) and the knives were engulfed in red chakra.

While when they had first been thrown they had been tiny and insignificant, they grew as they fell, until they came crashing down to stab deep into the earth, their size taller than that of Hokage tower. While doing a lot of damage to the poor souls they stabbed through, the shockwave of such huge knives stabbing into the earth made many inexperienced fall to their knees clumbsly, easy pickings for the Konoha ninja who had seen and prepared for the attack. Satisfied, Kyuubi fell back onto Naruto's waiting shoulder and they sprinted back to their little band of heros.

The vessel prepared himself as he saw Kiba preform a huge twin "Gatsuga" with Akamaru. As the dogish partners leapt out of the line of fire, Naruto leapt forward into the air and twisted his taloned hand back. With a furious "Kitsune Claw!", his hand surged forward, chakra charged claws first. Chakra few through the air from his taloned hand, spinning in the shape of bloody crescent moons. The attack cleaved into the army, cutting through weapons, soldiers and bodies, to part the army into two and make a long, wide path to the other side. Naruto smiled at his handy work as gravity pulled him back to earth. Konoha had a fighting chance now.

Naruto descended, carefully snatched up the waiting Kyuubi, and ran after his friends who were already making their way down the newly made path. The army, however, began to close into the sides, shrinking the gap. The vessel desperately threw his taloned hands together to create seals.

"Kitsune kage bunshin no jutsu!" His own small army of foxes sprang into existence, instantly attacking the enemy and pushing them back. The team finally made it to the other side of the army, spotting Sasuke not far off. The traitor looked on in horror as the team advanced toward him, muscles tensing as he was about to spring into a run.

And the sun finally rose over the horizon.

* * *

Oops... Did I just type a cliffhanger when you now have to wait an entire MONTH for me to update? My bad :) Lol. Yall must hate me. 

A few notes: I say Inari-**_Z_**ushi just because thats how I've seen it written, many times in fact, so Im sticking with the z for now.

And also, you can blatently see that Im a uber fan of the whole "Totally outnumbered, huge army breaking over the hill at pre-dawn" cliche, but oh well. Lol. Don't worry, you'll be seeing it again soon. Wink wink.

Oh and did you guys like the total Kitsune Claw, Inuyasha rip off? Lol. Well its slightly orriginal, with Naruto needing the gloves to power the attack up and all... cough, remember this, cough.

Anyway, even if you have to wait a month, wait around to see Naruto remeet Iruka and confront Shukaku and Gaara...

A few more chapters and you'll see Naruto's summon. Wink.


	7. Smiling Villans

Ok so Im not as evil and cold shouldered to my reviewers as all think, lol. I do realize a month is a mighty long time, but its for the sake of both me, my beta and, as you might not believe, you. Me, it gives me more time to write King Kyuubi (cough not even half way done but getting there. Its chapter four and we've finally met "Tore Kyuubi" coughcough). For my beta, it gives her more time to edit and such... though I see she's failed to use it, and thus my updating early now. And for you, since it wouldnt be much of a story if I posted it all in a month, leaving you all with a feeling of "Well damn... wish there was more," and along with it, no King Kyuubi to pull you into (which I hope to finish before Im done posting all of this).

Anyhow, a month is a long time, and I agree, I will start updating more, but still probably not as quickly as you all will like. Ahh well, sorry. Dont worry, I enjoy posting as much as you enjoy reading it...

Plus Im in a bit of a slump with life and require much petting and praise. Laughs. Must prepare and all with brother dearest coming home and such. Gag. Can you say wallowing in low-self esteme?

Lets just say I turn to Hinata around Naruto when my brother comes come. In short: stuttering mess.

Ah well.

Warning: This could be called a filler chapter... I guess, who knows. Ah and slight Kakashi bashing... just because it sounded fun at the time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and deserve nothing but what I deserve..

* * *

_**Fortune's Fool**_

**Chapter 7 - Smiling Villans**

By Mirazhe1

Naruto, to be put shortly, was laughing wildly. So wildly, in fact, he was beginning to tip out of his chair. Kyuubi, sitting on his jailer's lap, drew his ears back with a scowl.

**"Come now, Kittling, it is not that amusing,"** Stated Kyuubi boredly. Contrary to what he said though, his tail flicked back and forth in an amused manner. Godaime, sitting at her desk with her fingers bridged beneath her chin, chuckled merrily.

"Yes yes, get over it Naruto. Its more ironic than funny," She agreed, trying to sound exasperated, yet failing as her grin ruined the effect. Naruto, having had his fun, gingerly wiped his watering eyes with a smile.

"To funny. So the council thinks Sasuke was under a mind control jutsu when he ran off to the missing-nin?" Tsunade nodded and the vessel's foxish grin widened with a chuckle. "But the council is still wary of 'im anyway. And asking me to ask Kakashi to keep watch on him just takes the cake. Even if they suspect him for the wrong reasons, it still works to our goal." Tsunade chuckled.

**"The Copy-Cat Ninja is either a very good actor or merely forgotten about his original mission. It is apparent to me of which."** Kyuubi grinned with a blink, and his tail twitched in the direction of the door.

"Now now, calm both of you. I will not have you degrade your subordinates, no matter how useless they sometimes seem to be," Tsunade chuckled teasingly. "Now then, Im sure you both know of the Chunin Exam coming up. While its safe to say that you'll make it to the final round and earn Chunin anyway, I'd like to reward you the title now, for all of your hard work and bringing back Uchi-"

"No, don't promote me for that, Old Hag," Naruto interrupted. "All I did was carry Sasuke back. The Ino-Shika-Cho and Kiba took him out; I just got them to him. If anything, award them the title. I'll earn my way to the top fair and square." Godaime smiled softly and nodded in understanding.

"Fine then, depending on their success in the exam, I'll see to their promotion. But back to the mission. With the council suspicious now, our evidence would be more believable, but it would be better to have more. For a more rock solid case of coarse. But you have to get it before the Chunin Exam. Sasuke will no doubt win back over the public by the end of it and I can't guarantee he won't make Chunin. We'll be back to square one if he does." Naruto nodded along with Kyuubi, who seemed distracted.

**'A spy listens in. The Copy-Cat Ninja. He suspects I sense him and changes position. Watch thine words, Kittling.'** Naruto mentally nodded.

"Good then. You're dismissed."

* * *

Naruto sighed along with Kyuubi as he spotted his so called team at the bridge. Sasuke seemed to be a brooding more than he remembered and the mood seemed to catch on Sakura, as she was quieter than usual. This was the first time the vessel had seen his team mates since the attack a month ago, as they had either been finding MIA ninja, rebuilding or under careful watch (in Sasuke's case). 

And what a happy reunion it was, as they all took their territory on the bridge and passed the time in silent brooding (Sasuke), pouting (Sakura), or cloud gazing (Naruto). Their wait was a little shorter than usual however, as Kakashi poofed into existence in the middle of the bridge. Seeing his team's rather somber mood, his single eye curled up happily, wrinkling a few hardly seen crows feet at the edges.

"Maa, maa, don't be so down, team! Our first day back and we've got a D-Rank mission. This calls for celebration!" Without further a do, he handed each of them a slip of paper, or in Naruto's case two. "These," Copy-Cat Kakashi drawled out, "Are your entry forms for the Chunin Exams." Sasuke's eyes flickered dangerously and Sakura looked doubtful. Naruto merely shrugged at the piece of paper. "Fill those out and enter at your own choice. You'll have to fill out a side form for... Tenko, Naruto." The vessel merely rose a brow at Kakashi's short pause at Kyuubi's false name. Ahh, so he had been spying on them after all.

'Or he could just be smart and figured it out.' Kyuubi was silent at this but gave a disbelieving glance at his jailer. 'Yeah your right. Definitely spying.'

"Remember," Continued Kakashi, "Only enter if you feel you're ready. Don't let your teammates opinions persuade or dissuade you." With that, the Copy-nin vanished in a puff of smoke. Shrugging, Sasuke stuffed the slip of paper into his pocket and made his way home. Sakura paused, glancing at the piece of paper to Sasuke and back again, before more hesitantly storing away her entry form. With a cry, she ran after her beloved, not sparing Naruto and Kyuubi a second glance.

The vessel, however, stood still in the clearing patiently reading the entry form over. Kyuubi, on his shoulder, perked, his ears drawn forward. Before he could even warn his jailer, Naruto spoke up.

"You can come out now. I know your there." A few leaves in a nearby tree rustled in surprise, then diligently stilled again. "Come on now, the Demon-spit doesn't miss things as trivial as spies."

The leaves, defeated, parted to let a tall chunin fall to the ground, landing crouched on his feet. He rubbed the horizontal scar across his face nervously. However, it looked awkward, as a frown set on his features; it would have looked rather charming if he had smiled. Naruto finally looked up, carefully folding the entry form and sliding it into his pocket. Kyuubi scrunched up his nose.

**'Ah, one of the Smiling Villains. Mine nose did not quite recognize him. I give thee permission to throw thine self at this chunin, now. Surely thou shall exterminate him by lifting a finger.'** The vessel merely grinned every so slightly.

"Iruka-san, is it? I thought I remembered you." The man, Iruka, looked even more awkward as if it was possible.

"You remembered me?" Naruto offered a foxish smile, his eyes squinting to slits.

"I remember everyone who looked at me with cold eyes." The vessel's smile was unfaltering but a tense silence stretched over the air. Iruka found it hard to breath. This demon, he still held a grudge? Would he kill him now that they were alone? Would he devour him alive, slowly taking each appendage and organ one by one? Would he-

... Walk away?

Iruka blinked as Naruto merely turned on heel and began to tread away, a bounce in his step. The chunin blinked again.

"W-Wait!" The vessel paused, looking over his shoulder. On the other, Kyuubi stretched upward, looking over the mass of spikes that was Naruto's hair. "D-do you wana go get some ramen?" Iruka inwardly screamed. Why oh why had he asked the demon for lunch! If he wasn't eaten by the demon, then the village would surely shun him for mingling with evil beings.

Naruto stared at him for a moment, through slitted eyes, before they slowly opened. His face stretched into a real smile, blue eyes bright.

"Sure!"

* * *

The slow walk to Ichiraku's was filled with a long silence, broken up now and again with short bits of conversation. While Naruto was rather passive and calm, poor Iruka looked rather frayed and nervous in the beginning. But as time went on, he slowly began to relax in the vessel's presence and they were soon talking comfortably like reunited friends. 

"This is the place," The chunin said as he held back the short curtains for Naruto to enter the stands. It was unnecessary however, as the poor vessel was so short he could have walked under them without his large mass of hair even rustling the fabric. "With economy so bad right now, I've kinda been the one keeping this place open." Iruka rubbed his scar with an embarrassed smile. Naruto grinned as he sat on a stool at the bar-like restaurant. Iruka made his place beside him.

The chef was no where in sight, most likely in the back of the kitchen. "Hey, Ichiraku-san!" The chef, Ichiraku, appeared from the back with a smile.

"Ahh Iruka! Was expecting you sometime soon. And look at this! You brought someone along." The old man smiled in a grandpa-ish like way. "What will you two be having?"

"A pork and.." With a glance at Naruto, who pointed to the menu, he continued, "Miso ramen, please." Old man Ichiraku nodded and retreated into the back of the kitchen. The two proceeded in silence again, looking every which way but to eachother.

"So," Naruto finally said, as Kyuubi hoped off his shoulder and onto the counter to sniff at the various scents of ramen.

**'Inari-zushi smells better. Food of the gods, it is,'** Kyuubi idly interrupted. The vessel ignored him.

"You've been following me for a week now." Iruka, caught by surprise, sputtered over the glass of water he had been drinking. "Why?" Naruto continued. Iruka paused, now composed, and set down the glass.

"I heard a rumor," began the chunin. "That the d... You were back in the village a few days before the attack." Naruto sat listening quietly, his expression blank. "I was nervous becau... Well Im sure you know why. Then I'd heard after the attack you served at the wall.." Iruka paused, thinking carefully, then continued.

"Everyone knows about the two giant swords on the battle field; the council decided to carve the names of the departed into them, like a new memorial stone." The vessel seemed silently amused by this, his blank expression curving upward into a veiled grin. Not only was it ironic the council would honour the demon vessel so, but that the 'giant swords' had begun as mere cheapo knives. They had almost had the value and durability as kitchen knives before he and Kyuubi had used that jutsu. "No one in Konoha has ever heard of a summon that uses swords like but the boss of frog summons; only Jiraiya-sama can summon frogs, but as far as Konoha knows, he's never coming back." This piked Naruto's interest, but he stayed quiet.

"I could only think of one person stro...that's been outside Konoha long enough to learn a jutsu or a summon like that that was in that area..." Naruto momentarily interrupted.

"Iruka-san, I've know about the _Kitsune-baka,_" A meaningfull glance elsewere, "So you don't have to keep dodging around it." Iruka blinked at this, rubbing his scar.

"Y-yes," the chunin stuttered. "You did Konoha a huge favour, fighting like that..."

"But you began spying on me since I was so powerful," Naruto interrupted the short pause once again. He came to a halt and accepted the large bowl of miso ramen served to him. "You didn't know if the demon vessel, no matter how good the deed he did, would turn on Konoha and destroy it," he continued as he took a slurp of noodles. Kyuubi, drawn back by the sweet scent of ramen, trotted forward across the table and crouched in front of the bowl, lapping up the broth. Iruka looked away, rubbing the back of his head in an ashamed way.

"Y... Yes." Kyuubi paused in his lapping, ears perked, and looked to the chunin with a frown on his fox face. Naruto, however, continued eating before pausing to speak.

"Thou callest me a dog before thou hast just cause," the vessel recited, before looking up to Iruka with a smile. "Trust doesn't come on a whim. It has to be built." The chunin blinked at him, then offered his own smile.

* * *

Gaara of the Sand was very restless. Shukaku was practically throwing himself against his bonds as he cried out about some kitsune nearby; it was giving our poor sand-nin a splitting headache. So grudgingly he gave into the demon's will for the moment, following his direction's through the village toward this 'kistune'. It became apparent which one in the crowd was the so called kitsune, as a vibrant red fox rode on the shoulder of a even brighter blonde haired boy. 

The fox's ears perked, and it looked back at Gaara, who stood there silently glaring as he always did. The blonde looked back along with the fox, and began walking again, but this time toward a more secluded part of the city. Gaara followed at Shukaku's order. Finally finding a secluded spot, the blonde turned back to confront the other vessel.

"Tanuki-san," Naruto said with a vulpine grin.

"Kitsune," Gaara replied.

**"Ichibi no Shukaku!" **Naruto blinked, looking to Kyuubi as he hopped off his shoulder. Gaara frowned and winced, clutching at the tattoo on his forehead.

"Kyuubi no Kitsune," Gaara replied unpassionately. Naruto blinked away from the red head and looked to Kyuubi.

'You know eachother?' He asked mentally.

**'Unfortunately, it is so. He hast held a grudge ever since I won out in a contest of demonic skills.'** Kyuubi mentally scoffed.** 'I had merely 3 tails at my back then, and the lowly tanuki still can't beat mine awesome strength.'**

"So your the vessel of Shukaku," Naruto finally said in a curious way. Gaara nodded.

"Tanuki and Kitsune are not nessecarially enemies. I won't kill you... But if you get in my way, I'll feed you to my sand." Naruto seemed content with this and nodded, but Kyuubi thought otherwise.

**"Bring out thine demon, tanuki. I will speak with him." **Gaara frowned at the small fox demon, but, after much mental debate, created a small, lifeless tanuki out of sand, which quickly came to life with a glass shattering screech.

**"MINE AUGUST SELF! Mine power hast swelled and this time I shall defeat thee!" **Shukaku lunged forward, but was knocked back by Kyuubi's tail.

**"Oh, beware, mine lord of jealousy, for I hight not the lowly Kitsune thou fought all those hundreds of years ago. Now, I hight thee the KYUUBI no kitsune." **Shukaku growled lowly, but looked away in submission at his superior. **"Come, Shukaku, we have much to speak of." **The two paced away, shoulder to shoulder, and Gaara looked doubtful leaving such an insane demon all alone, until the never dying pressure to kill slowly eased from his mind. He seemed astonished, raising his hand to make sure he was still himself by twisting his ever present sand through the air.

The two demons began to walk back, Shukaku looking a little shaken. It would never be known what exactly the demonic fox said to his tanuki cousin, but if it was enough to scare the blood thirsty, rugged Shukaku, it had to be something vicious... or just insanely sweet blackmail. Kyuubi looked to Gaara.

**"The demon in thee hast quieted," **Kyuubi told him, chuckling at his ironic comment. **"He hast agreed not to pester thee and let thee sleep... If thou lets him from his cage occasionally; the seal gives him much pain, see." **Gaara nodded, bewildered. Despite this, his well trained face only let his eyes widen the lightest bit. **"And remember, Shukaku; break this deal, and I shall hunt thee down, apprentice with me; even if it means running to the ends of the earth... Not to mention tellest all demon we come across of thine secret."**

Shukaku wimpered.

* * *

Use your imagination about Shukaku's secret, laughs. This chapter was rather rushed and short, but it tied up loose ends. Ah well. Next chapter ( I think) reviels Naruto's summon. Its original and never seen before (I hope) but at the same time, not. Any who guess what it is gets a in depth summary of King Kyuubi 

-Stretches and goes back to work on King Kyuubi-

'azhe out.


	8. Destined Spirits

Congradulations.

You all can thank Yo for helping me come to the great decision of disabling anonymous reviews. While a few of my best reviews were from anons, Ive had many more of my worst from them. My deepest appologies to those who have no accounts or don't wish to log in, but I feel its a nessecary evil.

Oh, and Yo?

"Sacred realm that is Naruto Fandom"? Ha, don't make me laugh. Obviously you need to acompany yourself to good stories, as you seem to have no taste for what is really great from reading so much Naruto. Go read some Inuyasha fics.

At least I think its a well known fact that almost all of the Inuyasha fiction authors and authresses put us all to shame. So go read some of their works, compare it to Naruto stories, then come back and tell me that the Naruto fandom is still "Sacred".

ON A LIGHTER NOTE, we get to see Naruto's summon today. I hope you all like it and that its as orriginal (yet not) as I claim. The chunnin exam has begun and everyones in for a bit surprise...

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 8 - Destined Spirits**

By Mirazhe1

Naruto let out an extremely long and exasperated sigh; it was going to be a LOOONG chunnin exam, he knew. Already, before the first part of the exam had even started, Sasuke had made a spectacle of how they shouldn't draw attention to themselves.. Efficiently drawing attention of everyone on the street as they made their way to the site. And now, here they stood proudly (or at least Sasuke and Sakura did, as Naruto and Kyuubi stood back and rolled their eyes) declaring that the hidden chunnin should drop the genjutsu so they could get to the test. Sakura, surprisingly, had seen through the genjutsu first, but kept quiet at Sasuke's earlier orders. However, the traitor had turned hypocrite and called out the genjutsu. Kyuubi seemed as displeased with the traitor as Naruto was.

So that put them were they were now, in that huge room filled with desks and unfamiliar ninja, next to Hinata and hardly 15 seconds into the first test. With a silent seal, and even more silent "Kuchiyose no jutsu," and Naruto was on his way. Contrary to the common summoning, there was no loud pop and a summon running out to attack. To the naked eye, there was the smallest shimmer in the corner of the room, making the chunin examiners look about for a moment; a few even went as far to utter a quiet, "Kai", but none could quite figure out what the shimmer was, or who the odd chakra source floating around the room was from, so it was soon forgotten ot ignored.

Those with the Byakugan, however, were in for an odd surprise as they activated their bloodline and looked about for answers. That little shimmer in the air turned to a slender lithe fox, silently padding along the room and looking over people's shoulders for the answers to their tests. While it was still blue and shimmering with chakra, it looked intangible and near see through, like a ghost; the effect was only greatened with the fox's natural grace and with it's light steps, it seemed to float across the floor. Naruto looked to it as it signaled answers to the vessel. Hinata, still set to keep from cheating, noticed nothing, but another Hyuuga, her cousin Naruto had learned not long ago, uttered a surprised, barely audible, gasp at the sight.

Ignoring this, Naruto quickly scribbled down the answers on his sheet, looked up and nodded to the fox. He smiled a foxish grin and the fox returned it with a bow. An invisible wind fluttered up and the fox seemed to blow away with it, dispelling itself.

Toward the back of the room, Hyuuga Neji pondered over the sight.

* * *

Kyuubi, followed closely by Naruto, snarled deeply at the giant snake sat hissing before them. No fox, of any kind, liked snakes.

"Kitsune Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," The clearing burst full of smoke, and as it cleared, was filled with an army of foxes. Transforming to match, the vessel retreated for the moment to come up with at strategy. He needed to be quick: being separated from his team (no matter how useless, he thought with a snort) for any length of time was not a good thing. The snake, meanwhile began striking at the bunshins. For something so large, it was quick.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu," He murmured, having come up with a plan. Kitsune Bunshins, however strong, were to weak to stand against the snake, and though his Kitsune Claw was formidable against a ninja, without the gloves he had used to enhance it at the battle, it was useless against large prey. And he just so happened to leave the gloves at home. Just peachy indeed, as Kyuubi, across the clearing, began to mentally whip him for doing something so foolish.

So used to it, Naruto hardly noticed the air shimmer and turn to ghostly foxes (for his eyes anyway. It would have been a rather useless summon if the summoner couldn't see what they were summoning) as he preformed the summoning. The spirits, three of them and each different in looks and colour, dove down to the battle bellow. Each picked a preferred Kitsune Bunshin and dove into it and, like a spirit possessing a body, disappeared. The Kitsune Bunshin shimmered with the summons's respective chakra before it engulfed them to form a body around them, looking once again like the summon. The possessed Bunshin looked back to Naruto with a nod, and leapt forward to mercilessly attack the snake with their own style. The remaining Kitsune Bunshin dispelled and Naruto transformed to normal once again; the odd summons would be more than enough to take down one snake.

"You can come out now, Hyuuga Neji, it's quite safe," Naruto called out impatiently to the trees as his summons made short work of the enemy. The vessel was getting quite annoyed with being spied on by now. There was a pause, but, decided now, Hyuuga Neji leapt down from his tree top hiding place to face the vessel. "Your alone," Naruto stated, "Its probably not very safe to wander about alone in a forest named after Death."

"The same goes for you, Uzumaki," Neji retorted. His intimidating eyes (as he had his Byakugan activated) wandered away from Naruto, past him, to the odd summons as they just finished off the snake. "What type of summons are those? No one in Konoha summons anything close to that."

"Fox spirits," The vessel replied innocently enough. Neji's eyes narrowed, veins wrinkling around them. "Not all summons have their own bodies, ya know. These guys just need to... Find their own.. Temporarily anyway." To prove his point, the summons, their job done as they stood over a rather dead snake, wisped away until all that was left were a few confused looking Kitsune Bunshins who were dispelled shortly after.

"Why are they not visible?" The Hyuuga pressed on.

"Most summons are have their body, their chakra, and the summoner's chakra keeping it here. These summons just have chakra and spirit-y... Stuff..." Naruto waved a hand in dismissal, not all to worried he didn't quite understand it fully either. "Normal people can't see spirit-y stuff or chakra.. Though I guess people can sense the chakra," The vessel pondered on, much to the growing annoyance of Neji. "Anyway since you have a Byakugan I guess you're just seeing the summon's chakra." Neji frowned, his Byakugan de-activated.

"So your tampering with spirits... How... Rebellious of you..." The vessel didn't comment as Kyuubi curled around his feet, a scroll in mouth.

'**End this quickly,' **interrupted Kyuubi.** 'By the pricking of mine thumbs, something wicked this way comes.' **Naruto looked down at the fox demon, appalled.

'...You Don't have any thumbs, Kyuubi.' The fox demon startled, looking up at his jailer in an embarrassed manner.

**'Tis but a saying, Kittling. But something evil does come, thou needs to return to thine team.'**

Naruto merely snorted. Neji looked on in an interested way at the silent conversation, the vessel's expressions only giving of a clue they were talking.

"Yeah, well, that's just my style," The vessel said finally said to the Hyuuga, picking up Kyuubi in his hands. He was growing bored with the Hyuuga's interrogation. "Anyway, I gotta get back to my team; still got a few more snakes to fry. Good luck with the exams." Naruto waved lazily over his shoulder as he waved, but stopped and looked back after a moment, as if forgetting something. "Oh yeah, and Neji?" Said Hyuuga blinked in question. "Thanks for the scroll!"

Neji blinked, then started for a moment, looking to his belt for the exam scroll he had worked so hard to gain... to find it gone. He looked back up, fully intending to kill the vessel, regardless of his rather intimidating tampering with spirits. But, looking about, he was even more surprised to find Naruto as gone as his scroll.

* * *

Naruto frowned as he looked down at his team below him. They seemed to be confronting an odd grass-nin... Or at least, Sasuke was. Sakura kneeled at Sasuke's feet, clearly in a catatonic state from the sheer amount of killing intent the grass-nin was projecting. Sasuke remained unfazed, however, as the killing intent was clearly not for him. The vessel quietly pulled out a scroll, and preformed his all to useful recording jutsu, and pocketed the scroll once again. Just in time: at Sasuke's word, the grass-nin's neck extended, and his head shot forward, mouth clamping on the last Uchiha's neck.

Without wasting a moment, the vessel chucked a wooden kunai at it's neck. The grass-nin's head retracted back to its -thankfully- rightful place before it could hit though. Sasuke staggered, clutching at the bite, with a groan. The Uchiha fell to his knees in pain.

"Saaa," The snakeish man drawled slowly, "It seems we have a fox in our mist..." Naruto didn't comment, jumping down from his perch to land between his team mates. Kyuubi joined him immediately, landing in front of them all.

**'The snake placed a seal,'** Kyuubi informed his jailer.** 'We've caught it early though; tis not nearly finished and fades already.'**

The vessel looked to Sasuke; while the Uchiha squirmed in pain on the tree branch, and Naruto had the odd urge to help him, traitor or not, but his intuition told him the Uchiha was beyond help. He glanced to Sakura, only to find her unconscious.

**"Snake..." **Called Kyuubi.** "Thou art a snake; mine nose wretches with the stench of it." **The fox demon's nose quivered for a moment as the grass-nin stood watching in an amused way.** "Yes... Thou art Orochimaru."** Naruto frowned, while the grass-nin, Orochimaru, grinned evilly.

"You have quite the pet there, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru commented idly; his grin seemed to widen beyond the outline of his face, it was so wide. Naruto growled. "It must have been quite the job to... Tame him."

"Why are you here, snake!" The vessel burst out, rather impatient. "For Sasuke?" Naruto snarled; with the Uchiha's traitorous ways, he would no doubt go with the snake sannin without a fight.

"On the contrary, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru corrected, like a slow hiss. "Sasuke-kun came to me." The vessel blinked at this. "Come now, Naruto-kun, your more clever than that; you figured out Sasuke-kun was helping that silly King of the Whites so easily.."

Naruto's eyes widened. That missing-nin organization, supporting King of the Whites, was Orochimaru? That would explain why Sasuke had been so ready to send them a message. Then something dawned on the vessel, making his eyes widen even more and filter red with anger. The same organization that supported King of the Whites, Orochimaru, were the ones that attacked Konoha.

"Asshole! You attacked Konoha!" Roared the vessel, as Kyuubi bristled with a snarl. "Just because we fuckin kill your supporter!"

"Actually," The snake sannin interrupted with a chuckle, "We attacked for him." He gestured to Sasuke lazily. "He wanted me to take him from the village, its only my duty to try." His sinister grin slowly turned to a frown. "Unfortunately, Konoha has grown stronger in my absence. Stronger than a few thousand samurai, at least." Naruto roared with furry, Kyuubi's chakra flaring around him, and leapt forward.

"Kitsune Claw!" He lashed his clawed hand forward as it trailed with chakra and the blow landed, leaving the snake sannin with five long wounds. Though the technique was week without the gloves, it was not completely useless. The vessel was surprised enough to halt, however, as a hand burst through Orochimaru's mouth. And like a snake shedding it's skin, a new, fully in tact, Orochimaru crawled out of the torn up body.

"You amuse me Naruto-kun," The snake sannin said, grinning his evil grin. "But I have no time for this. Sasuke-kun has the power to come to me now, please tell him that for me." Bellowing, the vessel leapt forward once again, but the snake sannin stepped back to meld into the tree bark behind him, and disappear.

The vessel snarled, before letting loose a furious howl, and slashing his claws at the tree. While he didn't use any specialized technique, his already formidable nails left deep scars in the wood.

**"Calm, Kittling. He has failed to notice his seal is naught." **The vessel growled plopping down on the branch in a cross legged position. His shoulders hunched and, though his head was down, his eyes looked up to the unconscious body of Sasuke. It was a rather intimidating pose, the vessel sitting there his hands stained with blood and his eyes even redder.

"Why do I follow him... I wonder... Sometimes... If Konoha deserves all this shit when they're not even thankful for it..."

**"Thou follows him to serve thine turn upon him." **Kyuubi padded up to sit beside the disgruntled vessel.** "Thou promised to help this village, unthankful or not, even if thou needest to drag each member from their homes, kicking and wailing." **Kyuubi chuckled in a foxish manner. **"Though thou did not needest to do quite that, this is thine way of helping the village."**

Naruto was silent. As much as he was beginning to hate it, he needed to let the Uchiha and snake sannin do all of these horrible actions, so he could properly unmask him. Out the traitor too early, and he would get away from it, and no doubt be the end of Konoha. The vessel sighed and stood, whipping his bloody hands on his white pants without hesitation.

"Asshole," He murmured to the unconscious Uchiha. "Don't worry, jerk, you'll get whats coming to ya." Calm now, and feeling better, Naruto looked to Kyuubi. "I can't carry both of them all the way to the tower." Understanding the simple sentence, the fox demon nodded. The air around them throbbed for a moment, as if a powerful illusion was being dispelled, and the small form of Kyuubi disappeared and grew to nearly the size of a horse. The fox demon, larger now, certainly looked more impressive compared to the little thing he was moments ago.

Naruto grinned; it had been a long time since he had seen Kyuubi's faux body's true form. Working quickly, he lifted Sasuke and Sakura to Kyuubi's back and tied them on securely with some handy wire from Sasuke's supplies pouch (Kyuubi couldn't help but chuckle at that). Finished and rarin' to go, the fox demon and vessel leapt forward through the trees, toward the tower. Along the path there were many hazards, such as giant poisonous bugs and other shinobi, but thanks to the duo's keen senses, they steered clear of danger and made it to the tower in record time.

* * *

"Good to see you, Iruka-san," Naruto said with a foxish grin. Iruka smiled, the smoke around him dissipating (as he had just been summoned).

"Were are you teammates, Naruto?" The chunnin asked after a moment. He soon spotted them, however, asleep on the ground, back to back.

"Saaa... We ran into a bit of trouble in the forest, so we're a little tired," said the vessel, rubbing the back of his head. His posture turned serious, however. "It seems that Orochimaru has infiltrated the chunnin exams and gave Sasuke a bit of a.. Gift. Could you relay that to Godaime?" Iruka blinked, wide eyed. He had heard of Orochimaru and none of it was good. This was definitely a dangerous situation.

"I will, thank you for the.. Information Naruto," Iruka said, and with Naruto's dismissing nod, disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Naruto relaxed as the chunin disappeared; Iruka obviously hadn't been observant enough to spot that Kyuubi was missing. With a quiet "Kai!", the minor illusion keeping the giant fox hidden was dispelled. Kyuubi padded up, looking slightly embarrassed with the prediciment. While his borrowed body was useful, it didn't have the power to do something as complicated as the illusion that disguised him as the tiny fox everyone thought he was. Naruto sighed, and began preforming the long line of seals needed to disguise Kyuubi once again.

Damn. Uchiha had it coming to him.

Naruto despised genjutsu.

* * *

Hope you liked his summons. If they're not as amazing and heart stoping and original as I thought they would be... well.. then that sucks. Lol.

We're getting to the end with 8 to 12. Four chapters to go. Enjoy it as it lasts.

'Azhe out.


	9. Infinity

Yup yup Here ya go. Lots of fighting in this one, have fun :)

Saa... Im contemplating posting the first chapter of King Kyuubi, as writing has been slow (you dont actually get to Naruto until chapter 4! By the gods!) and I need a little boost from the fans.. Ill proceed to give you puppy dog eyes now...

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

"Eh?" -Fox/misc speech

Disclaimer: I own nothing

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 9 - Infinity**

By Mirazhe1

_Clang!_

Kunai blocked kunai.

_Skid!_

A body thrown back and, by the sound of it, skidding on it's feet.

A pause in array of sounds, broken only the frantic panting of two different sets of lungs.

_Pat... pat pat pat..._ A slight step forward, followed quickly by frantic running.

The _swish_ of clothes, as the runner leapt high into the air.

The _twang!_ Of wire as it was unraveled from it's spool.

Naruto took this time to open his eyes, slitted pupils dilating from the change of light, and look down on the fight below the balcony he stood upon. Sakura flew through the air, legs gracefully tucked under her and her long pink hair whipping in a furry behind her. She spun her ninja wire about, before hurling it forward, moving quick enough to wrap around and bind the frozen Ino. The mind-nin struggled to loosen her hands, just enough to work them into the familiar seals, but the wire held fast.

Then, oh then, with a malicious grin as she fell back to earth, Sakura yanked on the cord sharply. Ino's eyes widened in surprise as sprays of blood splattered across the ground. The bi-polar girl let the blood soaken wire slacken and Ino, eyes wide with surprise beginning to glaze over, fell to the ground, a growing pool of red around her.

Immediately, the ref raised his hand and declared Sakura the winner as medic-nin raced onto the battlefield. Naruto let out a low growl, his eyes flashing red only for a moment. Kyuubi, however, perched on the railing before his jailer, near flat out roared. The rest of the rookie nine (as Naruto was glad to see they made it to the semi-finals of the Chunin Exam) had similar reactions, protesting at how a ninja of the leaf could do such an action against their fellow comrade; understandably, it seemed as though Chouji was protesting loudest. Shikamaru went into a silent, yet calculated, rage, griping the railing before him until his knuckles would be white for hours. It was all to appalling for the Konoha-nin to bear.

Sakura, however, stood proudly through it all, ignoring the protests of her now not so fellow comrades.

"That's what you get for calling Sasuke-kun a traitor," She said arrogantly to the dead looking Ino. She turned proudly, long hair fanning out behind her, and treaded back up the the balcony to Sasuke. The Uchiha looked a little to pleased for his own good. Lucky for Ino, though, the medics arrived and though her wounds were serious, they were healable, so she was rushed off to the hospital.

It had been an odd preliminaries: supposed dead-lasts were making head way and supposed rookie of the years were being beaten down. As such had happened in the battle between Hinata and her fate driven cousin, Hyuuga Neji. It seems after her mission with Naruto, she could finally use her skills well in battle and easily tied with her cousin. Even Akimichi Chouji and Inuzuka Kiba had tied; no one quite knew how that had happened. Many believe Chouji had been bribed with steak, but it wasn't clearly known.

Soon tempers were suppressed and the arena was cleaned, so Naruto prepped for his upcoming battle. He was last to go, so he didn't have to look up at the board flashing "Uzumaki Naruto vs. Rock Lee" to know who he was fighting.

"Be careful, Naruto," Kakashi drawled out lazily as Naruto removed his weights (as he was sure he would need to; his ears just ached at the sound of this Lee kid's weights scraping together). "Lee's known for his taijutsu; you and... Tenko might be outmatched." The vessel grinned up at his 'sensei'.

"Don't worry, Old Man," Kakashi twitched irritably, "He's not the only one fast on his feet."

With this, the vessel jumped from the balcony to the arena, shortly followed by Kyuubi. He waited for a moment, then, growing irritated, looked up to the balcony for his opponate...

To find him crying with his sensei. Dear Inari, was his opponate that scared of him? No... As he watched, he slowly became more and more distraught.

"Oh Lee!" Gai, of coarse.

"Oh Gai!" Lee replying...

**"Oh Inari.." **And Kyuubi dying. He spoke it low enough that no one heard, of coarse... Except for the sharp ears of an attentive dog-nin... Finally, Lee made his appearance in front of Naruto, ready to begin the battle.

"Are you ready, friend, to behold my youthful passion of hard work!" The green monstrosity cried. Naruto blinked. "I've heard people call you a genius. A dropout will beat a genius through hard work and their springtime of youth!"

For a moment, Naruto and Kyuubi just stood there, blinking, before Naruto let out a snort.

"Genius? Im no genius."

Shortly before Kyuubi burst out laughing. The assembled-nin stood stunned, looking down at the small fox emitting such a deep and powerful voice... Well all except for Kiba, whom pointed and cried at the top of his considerable lungs "I KNEW IT!" Naruto looked down at the fox demon and frowned.

"See now, look what you did, kitsune-baka! You blew our cover!"

**"Mine apologies kittling,"** Kyuubi chuckled at everyone's stunned expression as he hopped to Naruto's shoulder. **"I can not contain mine laughter at this child's misinformation. Tis gut wrenching!"**

"Don't mock my nindo! I will protect my way of the ninja!" Lee fell into a taijutsu position, a ridged straight hand poised forward as if it would steer him to his target, and rushed forward with a furry of kicks. With his weights removed, the vessel was just barely faster than the green monstrosity... But of coarse, Lee had yet to take off his own weights; if he did, Naruto would be extremely hard pressed to keep up.

"Kitsune Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" An army of foxes ran forward toward Lee, skipping and dodging each way. Lee, of coarse, dodged left right up down, every way possible, to make his way to Naruto. But just as he came into range for a powerful kick, the vessel jumped back and made a seal. At the same time, Lee's round eyes went wide as he spotted the Kitsune Bunshin on his shoulder, and felt a few more gripping the jumpsuit on his back.

**"Bunshin Daibakuha,"** Barked Kyuubi. Naruto jumped back again, carefully out of range.

"Boom," Finished Naruto. Immediately the clones erupt and Lee goes flying, hitting the wall in a burst of dust.

**"Listen well child: Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them,"** Kyuubi called out as Lee climbed to his feet, dusting himself off. **"And believe mine argument, this... Human," **Naruto snorted at this,** "Is no genius." **Lee looked on expressionless, before giving a good guy pose, teeth blinging and all.

"Then if both of us are hard workers, let us compete and see who's springtime of youth burns brightest!" Lee bent down, pulling his leg warmers down and reaching for his weights. Naruto flinched and rushed forward, punching Lee back before he could remove the weights.

"Sorry, Lee-san," The vessel said, standing tall before the green beast as he performed a single tiger seal. Kyuubi hopped off his shoulder for the first time in the battle, chakra whipping from his body as his jailer charged him with it. Immediately, Lee hopped up and dashed away, darting about the arena as fast as he could with his several hundred pound weighs bearing him down.

Unexpectedly, he took the offensive and preformed Konoha Senpuu...

To Naruto's head.

Ouch.

The vessel went spinning into the wall, much like Lee did earlier. Unfortunately for the green beast, however, Kyuubi darted forward and charged right into Lee's chest, bowling him over. The fox's chakra formed four extra long tails and wrapped around the green beast's arms and legs tightly, slowly burning at his green jumpsuit. Across the arena, Naruto stood wiping away a dribble of blood from his mouth with one hand and holding an even bloodier fang in the other.

"Damn," he drawled, the gap from the missing tooth visible almost at the back of his mouth. "That'll take a while to regrow.." He looked up at Kyuubi (who was laughing at his jailer) sitting on Lee's chest, long tails wrapped round him. The green beast was merely blinking up at the tiny fox.

"Yosh, I guess you got me Naruto-san," Lee called out with, despite the situation, all cheerfulness. "I forfeit."

---

With the last battle over, the winners of the preliminary matches lined up to receive their instructions. Naruto, being at the end, looked down the line at his competitors. Next to him, on his left, stood Gaara, arms crossed and expressionless. Next stood Temari, his sister, leaning on her giant fan, and Kankuro on her other side, leaning back with hands in pockets. Shikamaru, left of Kankuro, looked just as bored, while Sakura, next to Sasuke looked on 'innocently'. And finally, Shino stood impassibly all the way at the other end of the line.

"...ght Well, since you're representing your village," Concluded Tsunade. Slowly, each member of the line stepped forward and plunged their arm into the the box to withdraw a slip of paper. Soon, the examiner's had each finalist's name written down and began to announce who would fight who.

"First match: Uchiha Sasuke vs. Kankuro of the Sand." Sakura let out a little squeal of how Sasuke would be victorious. Everyone looked at her as if she was insane; she had nearly just killed her comrade not long ago!

"Second match: Uzumaki Naruto vs. Gaara of the Sand." Both demon vessels looked to each other and nodded respectfully.

"Third match: Aburame Shino vs. Nara Shikamaru." Both Konoha-nin looked to each other and merely shrugged, content with their opponate.

"Fourth match: Temari of the Sand vs. Haruno Sakura." Sakura let out a forceful "Shannaro!", while Temari looked on, displeased with being paired to fight such a... Thing.

"You all have a month to train, use it well." With that, the examiners and Tsunade poofed away, leaving the finalists to their own devises.

---

'Hurry up Kyuubi, we're gonna be late!' Naruto thought to his companion as he ran forward. Kyuubi, temporary stopping in front of a restaurant at the sweet smell of Inari-zushi, darted forward once again to jump up and cling to his jailer's traveling cloak. The vessel had been lucky when Godaime had allowed him to leave the village for the month to train; with the attack from Orochimaru, traveling in and out of the village had been drawn to a minimum. But had been all the help and the vessel felt as if he was forever surging with chakra.

They arrived at the arena quickly and Naruto took the moment to pull his handy gloves from his pocket and put them on. Immediately they melded to the long talons the vessel was familiar with and he grinned with pleasure. This was going to be a fun tournament.

The vessel rushed forward once again, finding his way into the waiting room for competitors. The Leaf-nins looked up, blinking from their own pondering, and provided Naruto with a grin or a smile. It seemed he was becoming a figure-head of loyalty and determination for the rookies, despite his oddly talking fox. The vessel foxishly grinned back, showing that his tooth had indeed grown back. Oh! It seems he was late.

Late enough to watch Sasuke Shishi Renden Kankuro into the ground and win the match. Peachy.

Both demon vessels were called out next and Naruto looked to Gaara, who nodded, obviously unfazed by his brother loosing. But both knew they had to keep up this ruse, to keep Konoha under cover. Shortly after the second exam (coincidently when Naruto was requesting his training leave), the three siblings had reported to Godaime of Orochimaru's upcoming attack. With their knowledge, Konoha had been able to prepare without looking... Well, prepraired. While the same guards guarded the wall, they were strategically placed at where the wall would be hit the hardest. To back them up, all available ninja (excluding participants in the Chunin Exam and their team mates) had been gathered and hidden near the wall, ready to spring to action when the first wave appeared. It was all a matter of time.

Apparently a very long time, as Gaara wasn't going to give the signal to attack any time soon.

And now they stood before each other in the arena, citizens of Konoha, oblivious to the oncoming attack, looking down at them.

"You ready, cousin tanuki?" Gaara provided the smallest smirk.

"Of coarse, fox-spit." Naruto smiled foxishly.

The referee looked on, unnerved, before he called out a definite "Begin!"

Contrary to his usual tactics of crossing his arms and waiting for his opponate to dish it out, Gaara stood ready, his sand swirling in the air. He was facing a kitsune; be it field fox to Inari's messenger, he didn't know, but a tanuki knew better than to relax around a trickster fox.

Naruto, however, quickly retreated, darting into the small group of trees scattered about the arena. The tanuki vessel followed slowly, his feet making soft pats as he walked. His ringed eyes glared at each tree doubtfully; he couldn't sense the other vessel anywhere-

-Ah! There! His sand darted out, shooting forward like a spear, at a short tree with yellowed leaves. It was too early in the season for leaves to be yellowing; even dessert dwelling ninja knew that. The tree poofed away and reviled a startled Naruto through the smoke. Gaara's sand darted forward just as Naruto jumped back and managed to stab through his side. Blood splattered on the trees and mixed with the sand. Old habits come back to the tanuki vessel, making him grin sinisterly with pleasure.

It was about then when Kyuubi burst through the canopy above them and lunged downward at Gaara. Without even looking, the sand surged forward, creating a tangible wall for the fox demon to run into. It gave enough time for Naruto surge the wound with Kyuubi's chakra to heal it quickly and reach up and grab a handful of leaves. He chose a vibrant green one, holding it delicately with his taloned hands.

"Sharpen," He muttered as he waved his free hand over it, surging chakra into the small thing. It grew to the size of a knife, glowing with chakra, and he held it like one, the stem like a handle and the actual leaf the blade. Naruto rushed forward, poising the leaf made knife for attack. Immediately Gaara's sand made a wall, but the tanuki vessel was surprised to see the tip of the 'blade' stab through. It disappeared, but he was not disappointed as it came slashing across his sand once again.

The wall dispelled, Gaara stumbled back in attempt to dodge, but long years of relying on the sand to protect him made him slow to react. The tip of the 'knife' managed to put a scar in the strap holding his gourde, but nothing else. Unfortunately for him, Naruto followed through with the attack, agile and quick, with his other taloned hand, poised to strike. More sand surged forward to block him, but the sharp claws pierced through the defense. The tanuki vessel managed to stumble back in time to avoid getting hit, but once again his gourde strap failed to dodge as Naruto's talons sliced right through it.

His gourde fell to the ground with a tremendous boom and a billow of dust; apparently the gourde was quite heavy, every one thought, slightly appalled.

Unfazed and glaring, Gaara merely hefted the large thing onto his shoulder with the broken strap and holding it there. It'd be a cold day in hell before he left it behind. Taking the offensive, his sand shot forward to Naruto and Kyuubi (whom now clutched his shoulder) like a menacing hand. They both jumped back, either dodging or slicing at the sand as it came from every which way.

"Ryusa bakuryu," The tanuki vessel muttered, his sand gathering to make a monstrous title wave before Naruto. It advanced, plunging down at the other vessel, before he waved and disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced with a small fox, grinning mischievously. Gaara glared; Kitsune bunshin in a henge or Kawarimi, he didn't know but didn't care. The sand wave came down on top of the Kitsune Bunshin, dispelling it in a puff of smoke.

Gaara looked about, glaring his ringed glare, as he was surrounded by Kitsune bunshins poofing into existence. Naruto stood across the arena, looking confident. Each bunshin had a pair of kunai wrapped in their tails', wooden and metal, all of which they promptly threw. It was a sizable amount, but at Naruto's cry of "Shihohapo Shuriken," they at least doubled.

Gaara's sand flew up and took the beating of kunai. He didn't see the Kitsune bunshins run toward his defensive wall, but he did hear the cry of "Bunshin Daibakuha!" and the resounding explosion that followed. His sand rocked and struggled to stand ground against it, but stayed firm.

On the outside of his defensive sphere, Naruto lunged forward, twisting in the air. The wall was crumbling on the outside; one more good hit was all it took. He twisted, swiping his chakra surged talons.

"KITSUNE CLAW!" The rings of chakra hurled forward and hit the sand, effectively dispelling it as Naruto rushed forward, 'blade' poised. The fox vessel appeared behind Gaara, leaf made blade poised to slice out his throat. Sand between the vunerable spot and 'blade' stilled it, but it fought to stay. Gaara's sand was slowly wrapping around the other vessel's legs; it already had the hand grasping the blade, slowly crushing bones within. Kyuubi, not one to be left useless, bit down on Gaara's leg with sharp teeth. Whether it hurt the tanuki vessel was left unsaid, as he gave no reaction to it.

"My blade can slice through your sand, Gaara," Naruto panted from behind him. "Your done if I decide it." The referee started out of his daze of watching the amazing battle to raise his hand.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!"

* * *

Do you all realize that there are only three chapters left? (two and a half if you get technical) Its so sad. But even if you dont want to see the ending, stick around for next chapter to see the fight of the century! Naruto vs Sasuke! 

Or not... Evil authress snicker...

Azhe out


	10. Believe! Fight!

Ill proceed to mope. We're so close to the ending and its rather sad. It was lots a fun depicting Naruto as the determined hero and I hope you guys liked it as much as I liked writing it.

But here Im getting all depressed. We still have a chapter and a half after this. We're almost there but not quite, so lets enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 10 - Believe! Fight!**

By: Mirazhe1

As the ref forcefully thrust Naruto's fist into the air (oddly enough, the broken one clutching the leaf-dagger for dear life. Gaara's sand had indeed crushed the bones within and was for the moment painfully useless), the vessel blinked at the sound of a roaring crowd. Be it from outrage or pride, he wasn't sure (having never had a few thousand civilian of a ninja village roar his name and cheer), but he grinned foxishly none the less.

"Believe, Fight," he muttered, likely to himself. Kyuubi balanced on his shoulder sure footedly smiled a fanged grin at his jailer, chuckling.

**"Fortunes' Fools, are we not, kittling?"** Naruto laughed; indeed! How odd it was for Konoha, hater of Kyuubi and his jailer and anything related, would cheer and clap for him. Him! Uzumaki Naruto. Vessel of the Kyuubi! How funny it was how it turned out.

"Fortunes' Fools indeed," The vessel answered, chuckling. Calmed now, Naruto looked to Gaara, who stood off aways, arms crossed yet not looking all that irritable. Naruto attempted to carefully remove his taloned gloves, but only with the help of one hand, it was rather impossible. The tanuki vessel looked on carefully.

"I've crushed your hand," He said evenly. "I apologize." Naruto merely waved his good hand, tenderly favouring his broken one as the shock wore off and began to relentlessly sheer pain. He offered his left hand and Gaara took it carefully, avoiding the sharp talons. They shook firmly, both offering varying degrees of a smile.

And that's were they left it, Naruto returning to the Finalists waiting area, and Gaara disappearing in a swirl of sand. Naruto, back in the waiting area, sat frowning with Kyuubi beside him. The remaining contestants merely spared him a glance (or in Sasuke's case, a glare), too immersed in their own thoughts about their up coming battles. The vessel finally managed to gingerly remove the glove and take a look at his rather broken looking hand. It would take a good many hours, if not days, to heal... And he still had his match with Sasuke coming up.

A medic nin approached, offering to treat the mangled hand but Naruto politely declined. With Kyuubi's chakra still flooding his system from the battle (when he had so hastily healed the stab wound from Gaara's sand), no normal medic nin would be able to heal him. The vessel sat in thought about what to do for a moment carefully listening to Shino's and Shikamaru's battle (not that there was much to listen to), until Kyuubi mentally suggested a summon he was familiar with. Apparently the fox spirit summon (Naruto couldn't recall whom it was, the fox spirit summoning clan was so huge) was a talented healer among foxes, as the healing talent was very rare. And the medic fox being just that, a fox, Kyuubi's chakra wouldn't be the slightest hindrance.

Naruto silently agreed, beginning a long string of one handed seals. Without both hands to preform the summoning, it took twice as long, as the vessel hadn't dabbled deeply in the subject of one handed seals. Finally, after a long while, the summon shimmered into Naruto's view, looking on with the kind eyes of a healer and glowing with silver energy like a ghost. Sasuke, more attentive than the pondering Temari or swooning Sakura, blinked and looked to the shift in the air. Eyes narrowing, he activated his Sharingan and squinting eyes widened.

_"Ahh... Thou hast the spirit and chakra of a powerful Kitsune,"_ The medic fox said with a grin. _"And I speak not of thine... companion." _She smiled kindly to Kyuubi. _"What would one servant by the likes of me do for thee?"_ Naruto spared Sasuke a small glance, but telling by the Uchiha's confused look, he couldn't hear a thing.

"A fellow kitsune," He sent a swift glance to Kyuubi as he explained and the medic fox spirit nodded in understanding, "Told me you were a talented healer. My hand has been crushed and needs to be healed quickly." The vessel extended his hand tenderly for the fox spirit to see. She looked on, kind fox eyes becoming critical as she gazed at the hand.

"What the hell is that, fox-spit," Sasuke asked venomously. Sakura blinked away from her swooning and finally noticed the slight shimmer in the air and Sasuke's sharingan eyes, slowly putting two and two together as to why she couldn't see anything. Temari merely ignored them both with a scoff (she had heard from Gaara of Naruto's strange ways), leaving to go find Kankuro and Gaara. The vessel looked up with Kyuubi's growling, blinking from the fox spirit as she carefully sniffed at his hand.

"A summon," he answered shortly. He idly wondered why everyone in Konoha enjoyed calling him Fox-spit. It was a rather uninsulting name, even if it ran deep for Naruto from being called it for years. Perhaps it had something to do with Kyuubi and it just became an unlikely habit for everyone in Konoha. Sasuke scoffed.

"What kind of useless summon is that? It doesn't even look tangible."

"A spirit. And thus one that can possess you. And thus one that can make you dance in the women's hot springs naked, singing like the cranky crow you are that your a traitor to Konoha." The Uchiha's gaze hardened and Sakura lunged forward. He grabbed the back of his shirt and whispered something to her. Immediately, she calmed but looked devilishly satisfied. Shrugging, Naruto turned back to the medic fox's work.

She seemed done evaluating now and began to gather chakra. She thrust her black nose forward to rest on the vessel's hand, giving him the oddest sensation. Not only was he hard pressed not to pull his hand back (even the small touch was torture), but the fox spirit's nose seemed cold like a dog's, almost icy to the touch. Regardless, he could feel the healing chakra enter his hand, quickly rearranging bones, muscles, and the like. It was a rather painful process, having his bones be rebuilt, but finally after a long quarter of an hour, the medic fox was done. She finished with a warm lick on the back of his hand, dispelling the icy feeling her wet nose left behind. Naruto thanked her and she nodded, disappearing like dust in the wind.

Sometime during the healing, Shikamaru returned to the waiting area, obviously the victor. The lazy ninja didn't even question why Naruto sat there, grimacing in pain for the past 5 minutes for no reason. He had overheard about the vessel's spirit fox summons as Neji explained it to his team. How troublesome of a summon. Shikamaru sure hoped he wouldn't be duking it out with Naruto any time soon; he had been at the invasion and had heard the explosions coming from the ring during his fight.

Naruto gingerly flexed his hand, and was happy to find no pain. Glancing around, he saw that Temari and Sakura were gone, and Shikamaru had returned.

**'Ahh, good. Just in time. She is a wonder is she not?'** Kyuubi said to his jailer privately. **'T'will be a short fight. The Flower may be strong, but the Wind is stronger.'** Sure enough, Temari trudged back in shortly after, badly cut and bruised but the victor. If she was this bad off, Naruto loathed to see Sakura. He frowned though, as he looked to Sasuke.

It was his turn again.

* * *

"BEGIN!"

The Uchiha and the vessel squared off, both reluctant to make the first move. Sasuke glared sharply at Naruto, Sharingan eyes blazing. Naruto reached for his pocket, probing for his gloves. His eyes widened though, as Sasuke held them up in his clenched fist.

"Looking for these?"

Naruto inwardly cursed at his stupidity (Kyuubi helping him curse all the while). Leaving the gloves in the waiting area like a rookie idiot. Shit.

"Unfortunately," Sasuke continued, "I couldn't copy your 'Kitsune Claw' for some reason," Naruto grinned mischievously, "And without these you can't do that technique, so I guess they're useless to both of us." The Uchiha tossed the gloves into the air, preformed seals in a flash, and called out "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" A huge fireball incinerated the gloves and continued toward Naruto.

Naruto danced out of the way, on all fours for maximum speed. He glanced back to watch Kyuubi run the other way. The vessel and his companion readied themselves but Sasuke stood up now, straight and relaxed. His head tilted, as if listening to something. He sighed, obviously exasperated.

"Sorry Naruto, guess we can't have our fight today. But don't worry, we will when I destroy the Leaf." Naruto's eyes widened and he sent a signal to Tsunade up in the Hokage seating. Immediately, Godaime unsheathed a kunai and plunged it into the neck of the Kazekage beside her. The man sat stunned for a moment, before poofing away and leaving a log behind.

Sasuke, blurring through seals, looked up and preformed "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!" The stream of fire flew straight up into the air, high above the stadium before dissipating away. A rumbling was heard, slowly growing, as the snake summon king, Manda, slithered over the high walls of the stadium and offering his head for the smug Uchiha to climb onto.

Naruto rushed forward, tackling Sasuke through the middle, but the Uchiha poofed away, reappearing on Manda's forehead. The snake quickly retreated and disappeared before the vessel could regain his bearings.

"Fuck," he muttered. Onto plan B then. Kyuubi, a short distance away, stood expectantly. Gathering chakra and and preforming a half tiger seal he murmured "Kai." Immediately, the image of the small fox flickered and reappeared as the huge horse sized form he really was. The fox's large head swiviled to the direction Manda and Sasuke were retreating.

**"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"** Kyuubi murmured morbidly. Naruto's already furrowed brow seemed to wrinkle more.

Naruto ran up and vaulted onto his back as Kyuubi dashed forward with a kick.

Time to find his comrades.

* * *

Its a very windy thing to sit upon the back of a house sized fox as it ran full speed to battle. Naruto had successfully found each of the Rookie Nin (apart from, oddly enough, Sakura and of coarse Sasuke), and Gai's team, and they proceeded to run after Manda and Sasuke.

Only to be left in his trail when they couldn't run fast enough.

And this, this, was why all of the genin were huddled together on the back of the now colossus 'Tenko'. Naruto broke the dam and flooded the fox's faux body with the red chakra, making it grow in power and stature. There were very few questions of how Naruto made this come about; the other genin were slowly growing used to Naruto's bag of surprises, and thus with little a word (apart from the exuberant "COOL!"s), the vessel's comrades crawled to the back of the giant fox. They were making great time now, as the trail became more and more fresh according to many noses and Byakugan.

Slowly, the tall trees that had at first hindered their movement, filtered out and left a huge field in their wake. It was a peaceful scene, the field stretching for miles and covered with tall grass and various flowers. Oddly enough as Konoha was currently being attacked, it was peacefully quiet and everything reflected the yellowed sunlight. Kyuubi, from memory, and Naruto, from stories, recognized it quickly.

The battlefield.

Nodding their heads in respect for a moment, the genin jumped from Kyuubi's back as his chakra flow lessened and, thus, shrunk to his normal horse size. The large team advanced slowly, carefully. The air was stuffy at the sent of snake as it hung about, and even ones without enhanced senses could feel it.

**"How horrid a thing to corrupt this battlefield with the stench of snake. T's a memorial." **Naruto nodded agreeingly, but most of the team looked confused. A few of the more educated ninja seemed to understand, such as Shikamaru and Neji.

"Memorial of what?" Kiba asked, nose wrinkling. Akamaru yipped in agreement.

"Yondaime and Kyuubi. This is their battlefield, their Last Stand. This is were Kyuubi was sealed away," Naruto answered, as he walked to the front of the group. He took great care not to look anyone in the eyes.

"Sooo... What? You know this since your so in tune with foxes?" Ino guessed jauntily.

"... Something like that," Naruto answered after a moment. A few of the so-called prodigies (and a few that weren't) looked on doubtfully. "Come on," he finally cut off, advancing. The group fell silent (apart from a few being silenced by others) and followed their team leader.

Contrary to it once being a battlefield, the area was rather hilly, with small rises and valleys. Ironically, the valleys resembled canine footprints. But as the team came to the top of one of the taller hills, they stopped short.

There, far away yet visible, just breaking over a hill stood a large army of samurai and ninja. Their armour glimmered and glistened in the yellow sunlight as they slowly came to a fidgeting stop. The glare of kunai and katana pierced the genin's eyes as they were drawn and unsheathed. Though they had stopped, the army seemed ever moving as each individual moved to their own accord, like a waving sea of clanking armour and weapons before them. And in front of it all, standing together proudly, stood Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

The genin team took a step back, clearly out-numbered at least a hundred to one.

A few of the more vocal ninja had the gall to curse in their own way, such as Naruto, Lee, Ten Ten, Kankuro, Kyuubi, and Kiba.

A few of the more weak hearted took a step back, or fell to their knees, such as the newly healed Ino and Hinata.

A few of the more hardened and realistic ninja gave dirty and worried looks to the army, such as Shikamaru, Gaara, Temari, Chouji, and Shino.

But they all took an involuntary step back.

But Naruto, Kyuubi by his side, took a step forward.

"Dumb-ass Fox-Spit! What the hell you doing?" Kiba bellowed. The vessel flinched at the insult, old memories pooling forward, but Kyuubi inconspicuously leaned toward him, coarse fur brushing his jailer's bare arm in comfort. Naruto seemed to relax.

"Going to fight them," He answered cooly. Many frowned.

"Idiot, we're out numbered a hundred to one. Its too troublesome." Naruto frowned deeply. The vessel gauged their reactions, looking about his team.

"P-please, Naruto-kun," Hinata stuttered, reverting back to old ways as she poked her fingers together and looking back and forth at the army unsurely. "We aren't strong enough. We... need to get help. B-before the enemy g-gathers reinforcements." The idea of it only seemed to scare Hinata more. Many seemed to agree, while a few, Gaara and Lee, looked indecisive. Naruto seemed to gather himself up, standing taller.

"You don't get it," He retorted. "They are the reinforcements." He pointed to the sea of enemies across the field behind him. He never took his eyes from the group. "If we retreat, they're going to follow us to Konoha and infiltrate." He noted a few disbelieving looks. "Don't worry, they know the way; Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are leading them." Naruto lifted his chin defiantly. "For the past few months, I have been under the command of the Uchiha team leader to find evidence of his treason. I followed him to serve my turn upon him.

"But no more; our evidence is across this field, waiting for us to gouge out it's eyes and drag it back to Konoha." The Kyuubi vessel stood even taller, proud and confident. "But not only that, these people are here to destroy Konoha. Konoha, our home, our village and our precious thing. The thing we fight for. So if they want a fight, let's give it to them! BELIEVE! FIGHT!"

* * *

Yeah thats about it. Can't you guys wait to see what happens next? The climax! Will Konoha fall!

(Lol, now THAT sounded like a corny "Next Time" anouncement if I ever saw one)

Y'all are just gonna LOVE the next chapter, I know it :)

'Azhe out.


	11. Unkindest Cut

Saa... Here it is. I was too ansty and couldn't wait, as Im sure you guys couldn't either. Jeeze.. Can't wait cause of my own cliff hanger, how troublesome. :) Plus I want to get down and post King Kyuubi, but I can't just yet, since it's the unofficial sequal and spoil a few things from this story.

Anyway, I hope you like the surprise in store, and NO I didn't randomly pop it in there on a whim (youll know it when you see it). There were a few very SMALL clues, such as in chapter one, and another with the medic fox. Youll see, te he he! And beware, this chapter is MAJORLY quote happy. If the last chapters were a lot, then wow wait until whats in store. I own none of the quotes and didn't come up with them at all. Just because I suck and I'm not poetic enough to come up with a cool quote. Yeah.

Anyway, there's another chapter after this, just a half chapter, to close everything up and tie up (many) loose strings. It will be posted shortly after this one.. probably give it a few hour's ( if not a day) wait though ;)

Welp, its been fun guys, but we're drawin to a close. Nothin to see here.

Disclaimer: I own nothing cause Naruto owns my soul. So yeah: nothing.

Legend:

"Ramen!" - Aloud speech

'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech

**'Fool.' **- Kyuubi thought speech

**"Hark!" **- Kyuubi Speaking

_"Eh?" _-Fox/misc speech

* * *

**_Fortune's Fool_**

**Chapter 11 - Unkindest Cut**

By: Mirazhe1

Naruto looked at the group solemnly as they looked behind him to the army anxiously.

"We can win," he said assuredly, Kyuubi nodding. The group looked at him apprehensively and Naruto looked downhearted, that no one would fight for Konoha with him.

Gaara stepped forward, joining Naruto at his side silently.

"I will fight with him," He said slowly, perminently dark rings giving an evil look to his eyes. The group looked on, questioning. "He released me of my demon. How, I don't know," Gaara looked to Naruto, "I owe you for that, at the very least." There was a pregnant silence before Kiba stepped forward to stand on Kyuubi's side.

"Don't know why the hell Im doin' this, but we might as well go out with a bang." Akamaru barked in agreement from his jacket. Lee soon followed.

"Yosh! With our flame of youth, we shall defeat any darkness!" Naruto allowed a chuckle at Lee's exuberance. The rest of the group paused though, loath to step forward. The vessel sighed, ready to turn and meet certain death, until the tension broke, and one by one the rest filtered forward, joining the small band of willing ninja. They all stood together again, looking over the army proudly, yet fearfully. Naruto spoke up.

"Konoha Ninja! My brothers and sisters of the kunai! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands!" The vessel roared. The group looked on, most blinking, before their confidence slowly rose. "Let no shinobi forget how menacing we are, we are of the Leaf! Let us fight like them!" A few cheered at this, all agreeing. "We run to battle today! Let us fight for Konoha. Protect it! It is ours!" Naruto spared a quick glance around his team. A few looked ready, confident to serve for their village, but many, Ino, Shikamaru, Kankuro, Temari, Neji, looked unconvinced.

**"The past is history. The future, it is UNCERTAIN! But today is a gift, so we shall call it the present! We are not shadows dispel in a few MEEK RAYS of sunlight! We are not PUPPETS, pulled by strings or fate; NOR are we the wind, here one moment, gone THE NEXT! We fight for all we have. All will be well, kitlings! All will be well in the end. If it is not well, IT IS NOT THE END!" **Kyuubi roared powerfully, the army shifting uncertainly before them.

"We will fight for Konoha and we will die for it. If we fight for it, then we are great. If we fight for it and die, we are heros. Be not afraid of greatness, my friends: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them!" Naruto pumped a fist into the air. Many of the nin gained determined, challenging looks. This army dare challenge the great Konoha nin! "They shall not pass! Now let us FIGHT! FIGHT FOR KONOHA!" The team cheered loudly as one, pumping fists with kunai into the air, and ran forward. Naruto reached into his pouch, and tossed his home-made pills to each of them, all of which swallowed them (some still more hesitantly than others).

Charging onward, Sakura and Sasuke retreated to the back of the army, just before the team connected with the front of the army. There was a resounding shockwave at the force, a few of the samurai falling to their backs. The Konoha Genin fought fiercly, quickly and efficiently immobilizing or even killing the enemy.

But they were grossly out-numbered and soon the more close range fighters retreated and the powerhouses surged forward. Kiba and Akamaru, experienced with Naruto's pills took a strong offensive with their new techniques, Dainamikku Mākingu and, Jinju Konbi Henge: Sotoro. Now one monstrous two headed dog, they surged forward with a huge Garoga the size of Hokage tower. Gaara stood close behind, giant waves of sand flowing over the enemy. Not far off roared a house sized sand tanuki, odd markings proving it was Shukaku, battering the enemy back and forth with its tail and huge blasts of air. Temari, at Gaara's shoulder, rained down blades of wind from her fan.

Shino's destruction bugs also flew forward, multiplying at huge rates with their host's now abundant chakra. Waves of the army merely collapsed from chakra exhaustion. This was soon followed by the huge ball that was Chouji as he rolled over many more.

The rest of the team hung back, quickly taking care of all who was left alive and expertly covering the backs of their friends with the two Hyuugas with Lee and Ten Ten bringing down most shinobi, and Ino, Kankuro and Shikamaru taking most of the samurai down efficiently. Kyuubi turned mad man (mad fox), mercilessly tearing out throats or chucking knives with his tail.

Naruto looked on at his team, and watched as they fought so valiantly. Nevertheless, they were grossly outnumbered and slowly being pushed back. Frowning, the vessel quickly went to action.

"Kitsune Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He cried, and the field was suddenly filled with his own army of foxes, easily matching the enemies army. They stood, waiting for orders like mindless puppets. Naruto paused, gathering his vast amounts of chakra, more more more. It bubbled under his skin, hot and burning, until, finally, he had enough.

"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" He roared, and hundreds of foxes shimmered into his view, all of which quickly possessed a Kitsune bunshin. Their powerful demon chakra whipped around the feeble bodies of the kitsune bunshin, and became visible to the naked eye. Their bodies, huge imposing and half tangible, surrounded the tiny kitsune bunshins. They leapt forward to battle, making quick work of the enemy.

Naruto preformed his mass summoning technique four more times (of coarse with the help of his pills), each time summoning hundreds of fox spirits to possess his bunshins. Thus, he became the first to summon the entire fox spirit summoning clan to battle at one time. All except their leader of coarse; their leader was always there from the beginning.

The genin quickly began to make headway with the help of the foxes, their chakra tails lashing out at the enemy to quickly dismember any in their way. The army after many long, what felt like, hours, slowly began to dissipate, when Naruto finally spotted Uchiha and Haruno battling one of the stronger spirit foxes. The vessel rushed forward, spotting Ino at the corner of his eye run toward Sakura.

With the Uchiha so distracted with the fox spirit, Naruto easily connected a stone fist with his cheek, sending him rolling. Sasuke quickly made it to his feet again, glaring daggers at the vessel. The spirit fox backed off as they began to circle each other like an angry wolf and sly fox.

"So I guess I get to fight you after all," Sasuke spat as he tossed a kunai at Naruto, quickly disappearing. The vessel danced out of the way. "I finally figured out what the hell you are," came his voice, behind him, accompanied by the whirr of a fumma shuriken. Preforming a quick "Hari Jizo," it was reflected back at the Uchiha unexpectedly, and pierced his shoulder. He fell back, ripping the weapon from his wound and spat. "KYUUBI NO KITSUNE!"

Not far off, Kyuubi's ear's perked and looked over curiously as he pinned down an armless samurai heavily. Shrugging half heartedly, he turned back to his work and tore out a samurai's throat.

Naruto looked down at him, unblinking, before finally flashing a foxy grin. "Nope! Just his keeper." Enraged, the Uchiha stood and tossed the giant shuriken again, disappearing from sight. Naruto dodged it, but cursed when he felt a wire twang against his arm. The wire instantly twisted around him like a rope as Sasuke reappeared. He preformed many hand seals and his arm plunged downward, his other hand clasping his wrist. Blue energy gathered and he surged forward, leaving a trench in the ground behind him.

"CHIDORI!"

His arm plunged into Naruto's lung and retracted slowly, painfully. Why give him a quick and merciful death? Let him suffer and die slowly. The vessel snarled lowly in pain (he dare not whimper or yell) as the Uchiha clenched some important organ in his chest (Naruto really didn't want to know what THAT was) and twisted painfully. Sasuke finally removed his bloodied hand and grasped at the leading wire carefully attached to the ground, immobilizing the poor vessel.

Naruto faintly heard Kyuubi howl not far off, it was hard to tell, his ears ringing so, feeling his pain.** "Follow not the bell, kittling! Tis a knell, inviting thee to heaven or to hell!"**

The vessel, woozy with pain, watched as time seemed to slow down. He spared a glance to Ino battling Sakura, just as the mind-nin, sore and wounded, plunged two kunai into her opponate, one just below the eye, and the other up through the bottom of Sakura's jaw, just were the throat began. Ino yanked the second kunai sideways just as she pushed on the first, effectivly decapitating the pink haired shinobi.

He watched his team battle out with the enemy, killing efficiently, just like shinobi should, yet acquiring wound after wound. A deep gash here, a broken limb there. Slowly slowly, like it would never stop.

But he would, its time to stop it.

None of his comrades would die in this battle.

The vessel looked back at Sasuke, hardly hearing the Uchiha insanely rant on how Orochimaru would make him all powerful were the Leaf couldn't, Sharingan eyes blazing.

"- Fox-spit! I will destroy Konoha! I will have the last word!" He concluded. Naruto glared, coughed up blood and rasped:

"Last words are for fools who haven't said enough." Sasuke promptly went staggering back at Naruto's burst of chakra, so hot that it melted the wires and set him free.

"Th-this is the Kyuubi! The Kyuubi's chakra!" He stammered. Naruto was silent, his chakra still blazing as he carefully wiped the trail of blood from his mouth to his thumb. With his other hand he pulled down the collar of his shirt, exposing a small seal just below his collar bone, still in tact from the Uchiha's vicious attack.

**"Nope,"** He offered a sinister vulpine grin. **"This is me." **He swiped his bloodied thumb across the seal and his already blazing chakra seemed to multiply by hundreds. Sasuke stumbled back, finally landing on his rump, and watched as the blazing blue chakra slowly formed a shape around the vessel.

The shape of a fox, a fox with three tails.

Naruto's real form slowly began to shift as well, filling up the large image of his chakra until he too resembled a three tailed fox. The chakra slowly dissipated, vanished, and left the vessel's flowing golden fur to shine forth. He was tall and lean, slender yet regal and imposing. His face, long, golden and a muzzle tipped in black, was adorned with two shining blue jewels... No, not jewels, eyes, slittled blue shinning eyes. His ears were long and pointed, just as Kyuubi's, and black tipped at the end, like most foxes. Fur rippled downward, flowing like a golden river, all the way to his tails, also tipped in black like auric brushes in ink. And in all his foxish glory, Naruto stood before Sasuke, the boy hardly coming up to his shoulders.

**"Now Uchiha Sasuke," **Came Naruto's laughing voice from the regal fox body.** "You have been condemned as traitor of Konoha and responsable for leaking information to the enemy and many murders. You will be trialed once we return you to Konoha."**

Sasuke snarled lowly and poofed away. Naruto's ears swivled as he heard "Katon: Go-" above him. It was cut off though as the vessel disappeared in a blur of speed and reappeared in front of the Uchiha.

**"Don't underestimate me, Uchiha,"** Naruto roared. **"KITSUNE CLAW!"** Naruto slashed his hand-like paw, preforming his usual devistating attack. Still, when they both fell back to earth and the vessel danced out of the way, Sasuke writhed in pain upon the ground, favouring the half of his face, shoulder and chest that was near mutilated. Blood splattered and pooled around the Uchiha, so deep he seemed to swim in it.

**"Though you will stand trial in Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke," **Naruto said slowly. **"You have dared commit the worst crime against me." **Sasuke, hardly listening, looked about desperately for help. The entire battlefield seemed to be ignoring them, as if caught in a genjutsu.. In fact, just now he could see through it with his one in tact Sharingan, the air shimmering with chakra. He looked back at Naruto, eyes wide as the vessel advanced toward him menacingly.

**"First, you've made me cast a genjutsu. I REALLY don't like casting genjutsu. Second..."**

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The battle was won, victorious and successful. The fox spirits had been a major help, and though many had been dispelled through the battle, almost half of the clan was still left to see to the army's end. All of the gennin, tired sore wounded and beaten, were alive and, mostly, well. Sometime during the battle, they weren't exactly sure, many Konoha reinforcements joined the battle, enabling them to surge forward and break through the army. 

The gennin were amazed though, when they saw none other than the Toad Sannin, Jirayia join the battle. He hadn't been seen in Konoha for years (and unbeknownst to them, unofficially defecting once he heard Uzumaki Naruto had run away. He was not loyal to a village that outcast their savior).

Slowly, the injured ninja began to return to Konoha, but the genin lingered behind, looking about for their leader. Surely, oh surely he wasn't felled during the battle? There was no sign of 'Tenko' (or as many had figured out, Kyuubi) either, which only made them worry more. They waited, and waited, the sunny day still shining, amazingly enough, until they finally saw three figures breaking over the hill. One, large yet lithe, padding on all fours in a regal way only he could. Another, being carried, bloodied, useless and eyeless, yet thankfully unconscious.

Then there was the last, standing proud and tall, his wounds already healing as he lead all three over the horizon toward the small band. Sunlight played through his golden mop of hair and past his, thankfully human, limbs to cast a shadow down on the group below.

And Konoha's sun, shining in all his glory, broke over the horizon.

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The war was won. Konoha was still standing and in tact. Though with many casualties, the Konoha nin held strong and quickly rebuilt and were in relatively working order days after. Repairs were still being made but normal life was slowly coming back. 

Konoha had effectively kept most of the invasion out of the city walls and dispelled the huge army. Orochimaru, leading them through, had been rendered useless as a ninja by Tsunade and the newly returned Jirayia. Apparently the Toad Sannin had heard of the Kyuubi vessel returning to Konoha and came to see for himself. What a surprise he got.

A month after the attack, Sasuke was finally outed as a traitor and a huge trial ensued. The council and public whole heartedly disagreed that their savior would do such a thing, and blamed Naruto and Godaime for setting it all up. They were silenced, however, when they were backed by such a huge collection of evidence, and eye witness accounts. Not to mention backed by most all of the shinobi population that knew of Naruto's feats, most viciously by his gennin comrades.

Slowly, slowly, things returned to the norm, and Konoha became more prosperous. The village slowly began to accept him, both the public and the council, and the vessel became a figurehead of loyalty to Konoha and a great shinobi. Slowly slowly things were becoming well.

But only slowly, slowly.

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One more to go :( So bitter sweet. I hope you guys at least like the semi ending. The real ending comes up next chapter: Auguries of Innocence 


	12. Auguries Of Innocence

What William Blake has to do with this story... I have no Idea... But there has to be some similarities somewhere (Auguries- the coming of a good omen, I believe. IE: Naruto) But this is the last chapter! Ahhh! Im so sad... yet glad (lol). How bitter sweet. But... I hope you guys liked it. See ya next time, till King Kyuubi!

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_Auguries of Innocence_

_To see the world in a grain of sand,_

_And heaven in a wild flower,_

_To hold infinity in the palm of your hand,_

_And eternity in an hour._

_-William Blake_

The sun shone over the prosperous village that was Konoha. It was renowned by the world as being the largest, most successful, yet merciful village. It was renowned by the other Hidden Villages as being the one with the strongest, most loyal citizens and shinobi. They hadn't had a member defect for more than a hundred years, it was said, after the outing of the last Uchiha. It was renowned for their heros, that would gladly die in battle if it was for the good of their village. But then, it was also renowned for the Hidden Village with the least casualties, the comrades were so loyal to each other.

It became known as The Hidden Village of Heros, for all it's loyal ninja.

Proudly the golden fox, lying peacefully content in the sunny, flowered Konoha graveyard, recalled all of this. He lay there contently next to a large grave, Yondaime's, his bright, glowing golden fur flowing with the wind like the grass he lay upon. A butterfly fipped its little wings around his long ear, which he flicked idly; the little thing didn't seem to mind, changing direction to flutter about nearby. Nine long, black tipped tails fwipped and swayed with the wind playfully. His laughing, benevolent blue eyes looked up over the tall green trees to the Hokage's faces carved into the tall cliff.

He looks on at the solemn faces of Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime, Yondaime, and Godaime looking straight out to the horizon, to the east, as if watching for a sun to rise over the village. And then, there was the Rokudaime, smiling widely with a foxish grin, his six whisker marks like deep trenches in the stone and hair spiking up all round, creating the highest point on the cliffside. He looked over the village with his foxy smile, silently guaranteeing he would protect them all.

While the rough old stone cut at the first five Hokages, giving their expressions a sharp stern illusion; the Rokudaime's seemed soft and laughing.

The golden fox gave a chuckle as he gazed upon Rokudaime's face. Such a silly looking face indeed. He paused, his ear cocking as if listening to a silent spirit of the graveyard, which he just might have been.

**"Why I don't stay as Hokage?"** He asked the spirit softly. An affirmative. **"They don't need me anymore. It would not be natural for me to stay their Hokage until the village falls," **He answered sadly. Contrary to popular belief, Rokudaime had been hesitant to take the position of Hokage. What if he did something wrong? Brought them to waste? What if they hated him? This of coarse had not come true and he, in the end, lead the village to paradise. **"And I'm no Fox-Spit,"** The golden fox added merrily to the spirit. His nose rose indignantly in the air as he said it, giving him a faux bravo of cockiness. The air shimmered and fluctuated as many spirits laughed. A whole group of them. The fox slowly became solemn though.

**"I love the village. If I stayed forever, they would not be happy. You know its love when all you want is for the thing you love to be happy. Even if your not part of that happiness..." **The very air became sad along with the fox, as the spirits seemed to become quiet. The shining sun dimmed as it ventured behind a cloud. What used to be cheery, vibrant colours, dimmed morosely. Even the plants, flowers and trees alike, seemed to droop under the weight of the mood.

**"But," **The fox added happily, and the air, along with the spirits, perked again. Birds chirped happily and the sun shone through the trees brightly.

**"It doesn't mean I can't come back after a while." **The golden fox suddenly stood on long, thin legs, muscles shifting under his fur beautifully. His nine tails swayed in the air gracefully as he slowly walked forward, deeper into the forest. Despite his golden fur that almost seemed to glow at times, and the glittering sun above, the shadows cast by the trees quickly swallowed him up. He disappeared, and the world went on with it's ways as if he'd never been there.

Konoha is renowned for many things. But one of the most known things was their nights.

It was said, that over Konoha, every night, the heavens themselves blaze forth.

**End**

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